Let the Words Flow
by monopolyguy
Summary: Emily Ryan was a big fan of the Harry Potter series, but when she gets put into the world herself she is now playing the role of a young witch. Knowing how it all ends before it really begins is a lot to handle. Will she be an important role in the story and fall in love with Fred? Can she change the ending? Yes, a fan enters the story fanfic. Give it a chance, starts first book.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's.**

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Emily Ryan, the name that started it all. She was your typical American thirteen year old girl. Surrounded by family, beloved by neighbours, teachers and her many friends, always laughing and smiling and enjoying life. Emily had a mom and a dad and an older brother named Jeremy. Her favorite colour is red and she loves to read Harry Potter. In fact, Those were the only stories she would read. She was absolutely and completely head-over-heels for Harry Potter. She loved everything about it, from the moment Harry was waking up in the cupboard under the stairs, to when Hermione, Ron and Harry stood at platform nine and three quarters waving goodbye to their own children. There wasn't a day that went by she wouldn't think about it.

It was a bright Sunday morning in Houston Texas. Emily woke up and zoomed down the stairs. Today was the day she would go school supply shopping with her mom. She was nervous for starting eighth grade tomorrow, she had no idea what high school would be like. She just hoped that she had classes with her friends she knew from elementary school so she wouldn't feel alone.  
'Good morning mom.' She said excited as she gave her mom a kiss on the cheek at the table and headed to the pantry to get out her favorite cereal.  
'Good morning honey. You need to be ready to go by noon so we can head out and go shopping.'  
'No problem.' That's exactly what she did. She practically sucked her cereal in like a vacuum and sprinted up the stairs to take a shower. She got dressed and met Jeremy and her mom downstairs.  
'Ready to get going?'  
'Ya you bet.'

At the store Emily's mom went into hyper mode and hit almost every part of the store, checking things off on her school supply list while Emily and her brother tried to frantically keep up with her.  
'Hey Em, isn't that Sarah?' Jeremy pointed towards the cashier where she saw her friend Sarah and her mom checking their stuff out already.  
'Ya, thanks Jer.' Emily ran over to her friend and snuck up on her, 'Boo!' she shouted. Sarah leapt out of her shoes and spun around.  
'Oh my god! Emily you almost gave me a heart attack!' she playfully hit Emily's shoulder.  
'Ya I got you good.'  
'Whatever, you did not!'  
'So are you shopping for school?' Emily asked looking at what her mom was placing on the counter.  
'Yes, my mom made me tag along to make sure she bought the right stuff.' It was silent between them for a little longer.  
'So are you nervous about tomorrow?' Emily asked noticing her friend was caught up in her thoughts again like she usually was.  
'Yes! I hope I have at least one class with you.' Sarah laughed.  
'Emily! C'mon we're leaving now!' Jeremy yelled as he walked out of the store.  
'Bye Sarah! See you tomorrow!' she shouted running out of the store to catch up with her family.

The three of them were walking to the car and Emily and her brother trailed behind a little bit. Jeremy was three years older than Emily and was already in high school. He told her funny stories about pranks he's pulled with his friends and how he got into trouble after. He told her all about all the teachers she had to look out for and what classes were the best. Jeremy had a best friend named Andrew, he was at their house a lot. He said he liked it better there because it gave him a "homey" feeling, whatever that meant. Emily knew a lot of Jeremy's friends because they came over a lot.  
'So Jeremy, is high school hard?' she asked. She realized that was the only thing she had never really asked him.  
'Not really. It's easy if you don't get into trouble.'  
'Do you get into trouble?'  
'Ya, but I know how to get away with it.' they laughed.  
'Will you act like you don't know me?' she asked shyly. Jeremy stopped her and hugged her.  
'No way, you're my sister I'd never do that.'  
'Thanks.'  
'And besides, it wouldn't work if I tried because all my friends already know who you are.' he joked. She playfully hit his head and got into the car.

Before bed that night Emily went through her supplies and got the stuff ready for her classes the next day. She got into her PJ's , brushed her teeth and hopped into bed. There came a knock on the door and her dad came in.  
'Hey honey.'  
'hi dad.'  
'Did you get everything you needed for school tomorrow?'  
'Yes.'  
'Ready for school? Everything packed?'  
'Mhm, everything is packed and ready to go.'  
'Alright well goodnight.' He walked over and gave her a kiss on the forehead. 'Have a good day at school tomorrow.'  
'G'night!' she said as he left the room. He closed the door behind him. Emily turned on her lamp on her bed side table and opened it up. She pulled out Harry Potter and the Philosophers' Stone. It was always her favorite. She loved it because it was the beginning of their long and extraordinary adventure.  
_'Chapter seven; The Sorting Hat. The door swung open at once, a tall black haired witch emerald green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross...' _Emily read on, _'Harry had never imagined such a strange and wonderful place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles; which were floating in mid air over four long tables where the rest of the students were sitting.'_ she felt her eyes droop and the world around her started to fade away into a dark dreary, misty dream... _or so she thought._

_'Oh, you may not think I'm pretty, But don't judge on what you see, I'll eat myself if you can find, A smarter hat than me. You can keep your bowlers black, Your tops hats sleek and tall, For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, And I can cap them all. There's nothing hidden in your head, The Sorting Hat can't see, So try me on and I will tell you, Where you ought to be.' _Emily opened her eyes and in front of her she saw what seemed to be the sorting hat up in front of the whole school singing its song. Wait, sorting hat? This was one of those really nice dreams again where she imagined herself at Hogwarts as a young witch herself She tuned back into the hat as it finished its song._ 'So put me on! Don't be afraid! And you won't get in a flap! You're safe in my hands(though I have none), For I'm a Thinking Cap!'_ The whole room burst into applause when it finished its song. She knew that song by heart honestly.  
'I've always loved that song.' came a voice beside her. She turned around to see one of the Weasley twins.  
'Hello.' she said. She never interacted with any of them before. It's always just eating in the great hall or a charms class or something.  
'Hey.' he laughed. Emily looked at him confused.  
'And which one are you?' he laughed at her for a little bit then looked at her in the same way.  
'You're joking? You always can tell us apart.'  
'Fred?' she took a guess. He smiled, she apparently got it right, she could tell which one he was without even seeing him before, well apart from the movies she's seen in which they look exactly like them. They went back to watching the sorting ceremony. She bet the twins on which house each kid would get into, and she was right on everyone. Then came Harry.

'Harry Potter!' McGonagall announced. The whole room went quiet s the black haired boy with the circular glasses walked up to the stool and placed the hat on his head.  
'Five galleons says he's in Gryffindor.' Emily smirked.  
'Oi! Why do you reckon he'd be in Gryffindor?' George asked.  
'Just a hunch.' she turned her attention to Harry as he was being sorted.  
'Okay, if you're sure, better be... GRYFFINDOR!' the hat shouted and the Gryffindor table burst into shouts, screams and hollers. The twins stood on their bench and shouted,  
'We've got Potter! We've got Potter!'  
'Sit down! before one of you fall and break an arm.' Emily yanking them back down. Harry got off the stool and headed towards the table where he took a seat next to Ron, across from Hermione.  
'Welcome to Gryffindor.' Percy shook Harry's hand and continued to eat.  
'Thanks.' Harry looked shy.  
'You're going to love it here.' Emily told him. 'Hogwarts is a great adventure.'

The dinner seemed like it was taking forever. Emily sat there and didn't eat anything, knowing that if she did she would be hungry when she woke up.  
'Em, you going to eat that?' Fred asked with his mouth full, pointing at her turkey leg.  
'No, I don't think that would be a good idea.'  
'Why not? It's food.'  
'Well if I eat this now I'll be hungry when I wake up. I found that out awhile back when I had this dream before.' she said casually. Fred laughed at her.  
'What? You think this is a dream or something? Em, you can't pull one over us this early in the year.' George said from the other side of his brother.  
'I'm not joking.' she said as her smile faded. 'What you're telling me I won't wake up? That this is real?' The twins looked at her awkwardly.  
'Gred, I think this one's finally lost it.' George said.  
'You know Forge, I think you're right.'  
'You say it's too early in the year.' she laughed. 'You're trying to pull one over on _me _right now.' The twins just looked at each other, not sure if Emily was being serious, then went back to eating their food. The night slowly ended and Emily walked though the portrait hole and up the stairs to the girls dormitory.  
'Good night Em!'  
'See you tomorrow' George finished for his twin. She walked into her room which she shared with Angelina, Katie and Alicia apparently and drew the curtains around her bed as she fell asleep ready to wake up and start high school, what a wonderful dream to start off the year.

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	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

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'Emily wake up! You're going to be late for the first day.' Emily heard her mom shout. It would seem she forgot to set her alarm when she dozed off reading last night.  
'Sorry mom, won't happen again.' she mumbled as her eyes were still closed.  
'Did you just call me mom?' Emily slowly opened her eyes to where the voice was coming from. It wasn't her mom that was for sure.  
'Who are you?' Emily was wide awake now. She looked up at a girl around her age with long brown hair tied up in a French braid and was wearing the Hogwarts school uniform. The girl laughed and hit Emily's shoulder playfully.  
'Only Katie, one of your best friend you confused little git.' she turned around and headed for the end of Emily's bed to where her trunk was.  
'Katie Bell?'  
'There now you've got it.' she opened it up and rummaged through for a moment, then tossed a pile of clothes at her. 'What's wrong with you? You seemed a little distracted since last night's dinner.' Emily picked up the clothes and felt a little creeped out.  
'Nothing. I've just got a lot on my mind lately.'  
'Well hurry up and get dressed, we've got potions with Snape this morning.' Katie rolled her eyes and left the room.

Once she left Emily jumped out of bed and looked around the room. This was really weird. There was no way, _no way_ this could be possible. She couldn't be in the wizarding world, could she? Emily didn't put on her uniform, instead she rummaged through that same trunk at the end of her bed until she found some normal clothes to wear. She headed down to the common room and through the portrait hole for breakfast. On the way she saw the ghosts and portraits giving her a weird look, as if she didn't belong there. That was the point, Emily didn't belong there. She got to the great hall and saw multiple students at tables eating breakfast. All wearing their uniform. She looked through everyone until she found her friend Katie, who was sitting with Fred, George, Harry, Hermione, Ron and a few other students as well. She smiled and skipped her way to the table.

Ron looked up from where he was stuffing his face with French toast and almost choked when he saw her.  
'Wow, Emily. Why aren't you wearing your uniform? Don't you have classes this morning?' he asked. everyone else looked at her with their eyes as wide as Ron's.  
'Oh for goodness sakes Emily, enough! This isn't as funny as it was earlier.' Katie snapped. She stood up and began to pull her out of the great hall but Emily stopped her.  
'what are you doing Katie?'  
'I'm bringing you back up to our dorm room to get you dressed, this really is rather silly.'  
'There is nothing _silly _about it, you're all imaginary.' she pulled her arm away from Katie.  
'She's right Em, it's not funny anymore, give it up.' Fred said with his mouth full. Emily started to laugh uncontrollably now.  
'Alright well, you guys enjoy your totally _real _breakfast while I go up to Flitwick and pull off his hat so he can't reach it.' Emily kept laughing as she walked up to where the teacher's ate breakfast.  
'Emily!' Katie shouted. She was too late, Emily had already grabbed Flitwick hat and held it too high for him to grab.  
'What's wrong little man, can't reach your hat?' she laughed.  
'Ms. Ryan give that back at once!' he said. His face was steaming red and face full of anger, but she didn't stop there. Emily yanked on his nose as well.  
'Got your nose!' she laughed again. Flitwick pulled out his wand and used a charm to get his hat back, then cast a spell on her witch made her really dizzy.  
'Wow, that kinda felt like it was real...' she hit the floor and passed out.

'Do you think she's going to be okay?' came a voice.  
'I don't know, but I don't think she was joking before, maybe she just had some kind of charm on her that made her hallucinate or something.' came another.  
'I don't think so, she looked serious when she didn't know what was going on last night.' Emily opened her eyes to see Katie, Fred and George.  
'Oh, you're all still here?'  
'Well it looks like she's back, what a joy.' George said sarcastically. Madame Pomfrey came rushing into the room.  
'I hear voices, is she up?' she asked approaching with a emerald bottle full of liquid. 'Oh thank heavens you're up. It's been hours.' she shoved the liquid into Emily's mouth and she swallowed it. 'That'll help extinguish and memory charm that was put on you.'  
'I didn't have a memory charm put on me!' she tried to explain.  
'It's worse than I thought.'  
'No honestly! I'm telling the truth. Madame Pomfrey is there any way I can talk to Dumbledore? I'm sure he'll understand.'  
'Not in this shape dear.' Emily let out a long annoyed breath.  
'I feel better. I know who I am now!' she pretended. 'Yes, it's all come back. I'm a witch and you're all my best friends!'  
'It's a miracle!' George shouted. Madame Pomfrey let her go anyways knowing she was bluffing.

They left the hospital wing together and were walking down the empty corridors.  
'What time is it Katie?' she asked.  
'About four o'clock.'  
'Great, I'll meet you all down for dinner later, I think I'm going to go apologize to Flitwick.' Emily ran down the corridor and turned around the corner out of sight. They all looked confused.  
'Isn't his class that way?' Fred asked pointing behind them.

Emily got to the Statue of the bird to where the entrance to Dumbledore's office was. She looked around to make sure no one was watching her, she wasn't supposed to know the password.  
'Lemon drop.' The statue began to twirl and the stairs began to unfold. She hopped onto the first step until she got all the way to the top. There it was, the doors to his office, inside he was probably sitting at his desk reading some ancient wizard book. She laughed at the thought. Before she opened it she stopped and thought, _Was she really going to meet Dumbledore? _She shook her head and pushed open the door. It looked the exact same as it was in the movies. 'wow.' she said out loud.  
'Impressed by something Ms. Ryan?' she turned around and saw him. He was standing beside his desk looking down at her.  
'Sorry I didn't knock, I wasn't sure if you were actually- ' she couldn't finish her sentence, she didn't exactly know if he _was _there.  
'I see, by what I've heard you gave Professor Flitwick a very hard time this morning.' he smiled.  
'Sorry, I was just trying to prove a point.' she mumbled.  
'What point might that have been?' he asked gesturing for her to sit down.

Emily sat down on the chair across from his desk, the one she's seen so many times before. She waited for him to get around his desk and sit down before she said anything.  
'Sir, I was just wondering...well...I don't exactly know how to put this. It's a rather complicated story.' Dumbledore smiled.  
'You're probably very confused right now.'  
'Yes, very.'  
'Probably because of what happened last night.' she smiled, did he really know she wasn't from here?  
'Yes entirely, that has never happened to me before.' she got excited.  
'Memory charms can give you a completely new view of magic.' he said. She was doomed. Not even Dumbledore knew what was going on. Wasn't he supposed to be wise? Wasn't he supposed to know everything?  
'No. Not that. I'm talking about the fact that I'm a muggle.' Dumbledore waited for her to go on. 'You see sir, I'm a muggle, or human shall I say, from the non wizarding world. To me in my world, your whole magical world doesn't really exist, it's a fictional thing in a story book. I'm confused because I was reading it and for some reason when I fell asleep, I ended up here.'  
'You expect me to believe this?' he asked.  
'Yes.'  
'And why would you think that.'  
'Because I know everything.' she said serious.  
'Everything?'  
_'Everything.'_ She repeated.

Dumbledore's expression was very serious now, like he believed her.  
'How do I know you aren't lying to me Ms. Ryan?' he asked.  
'Honestly, it's up to you. It would make things a lot more easier if you believed me though. I know what really happened the night Voldemort killed James and Lily Potter, and I know that he's going to come back! I know _how _he comes back and I know how this all ends.' she began to get tears in her eyes. 'If you give me a chance, I can tell you anything and everything you need to know.' Dumbledore rose from his seat and walked around his desk to where she was sitting.  
'You're telling me the complete truth?' she nodded her head.  
'I solemnly swear, sir.'  
'Alright, start from the beginning dear.' he said soothingly. Emily smiled. Finally, someone believed her.

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	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

Emily spent the remainder of that night with Dumbledore and Snape. Dumbledore suggested Snape to join them because there was no one he trusted more. It took hours to explain to them what was going to happen. At first, she debated in her mind whether it was right to change the story by telling them what was going to happen, but this seemed like something they needed to know.

After that night Emily went along with her new life at Hogwarts. Dumbledore suggested that it was a good idea not to tell anyone else about this and try to blend in, as if nothing had gone wrong. She tried her best in every class, but she wasn't very good in anything really. In Herbology she got pulled into a huge vine of Devil's Snare and needed Professor Sprout to get her out. Charms wasn't even remotely better. She couldn't even make a feather levitate!  
'Emily what is wrong with you today? You're usually so good at charms like this.' Flitwick asked her concerned as he saw her with her chin on her spell book and leaning onto the desk.  
'Sorry sir, this hasn't really been the best week for me.'  
'Are you feeling sick? Do you need to see the nurse?'  
'No, I'm fine I guess.'  
'Alright, try it again please, maybe this time you'll get it.' He moved on to help other students. After Charms was over, she had the rest of the night to relax in the common room.

It was about eight o'clock and it was getting dark out quickly lately, something told her winter was on its way. She was sitting in front of the fire. Harry and Ron were gobbling up the last bits of candy they hadn't finished on the train ride here to her left, and Hermione was reading "Hogwarts: A History" on her right, in front of the couch. Fred and George were sitting on the couch talking about the new toy they got at Zonko's the other day. She let out a long sigh, it was still weird being there. She thought about the later adventures they were all going to get into and the future after the war. Emily's mind started to wonder to her family back home, or back where ever they were. Who was her family here?  
'Em, you alright? You look like you're caught all up in thoughts.' Fred asked looking over at her.  
'Well she was, you can't bother her when she's in thought.' George said.  
'Well I can talk to her now that she isn't thinking anymore right Em?' he said again.  
'What were you thinking about anyways?' George asked.  
'Nothing, it doesn't really matter.' Emily looked down at her hands that were folded in her lap.  
'Something bothering you Emily?' Hermione asked. Hermione was exactly the way Emily imagined her. It sort of seemed like she looked up to Emily though. Emily thought of her as a younger sister, a cute, smart, show off of a sister.  
'I was just thinking about my family is all.' Everyone seemed to avert their eyes from Emily after she said that.

'What?' she asked.  
'You never want to talk about your family.' Fred said.  
'Why not?'  
'Well because you don't know them.' George quietly told her.  
'Of course I do, what happened to them again?' she asked. she had no idea she never talked about her family, they were almost her whole world.  
'Your parents died when you were a little girl and you've been living in an orphanage for the past thirteen years.' Fred told her. Emily couldn't believe what she was hearing. She didn't say anything, that was a lot to process. Emily got up and started walking to the stairs.  
'Where are you going?' Fred asked.  
'To bed, I'm really tired. good night guys.' she left and walked up to her dorm room. When she was inside she closed the door and dropped onto her bed and looked up at the ceiling thinking about her parents, how her whole family was dead.

Emily woke up to the sun in her face, definitely an improvement from the night before. She got out of bed and got dressed and headed down for breakfast where she saw Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Dean, Fred, George, Angelina and Seamus all having breakfast. She walked up to them and took a piece of toast off of Ron's plate.  
'Hey, get your own toast!' he complained.  
'I just did.' Emily said in a sing-song voice. She sat down next to Harry. He looked over at Seamus who was trying to turn his water into rum.  
'Ron, what's Seamus trying to do to that glass of water?'  
'Turn it to rum. He managed to make tea yesterday, before he-' Ron was cut off by a big explosion and Seamus was covered in ash. Everyone around them laughed. Owls began to fill the room and drop packages off to different students all over the hall. Neville grabbed his and opened it up. It was a remembrall.  
'I've read about those, when the smoke turns red it means you've forgotten something.' The smoke began to turn red.  
'The thing is, I can't remember what I've forgotten!' Ron got his letters with a copy of the Daily Profit.  
'Can I borrow this?' Harry asked. Ron nodded and he opened up the parchment.

Harry began to read.  
'Wow. Hang on, somebody broke into Gringotts.' Emily's eyes went wide, of course, the philosopher's stone. She almost forgot about that. 'Listen, to be believed to be the work of dark wizards or witches unknown, Gringotts goblins were acknowledging the breach and insist nothing was taken.' he read on. 'The vault in question number 713 had in fact been emptied earlier that very same day. That's odd.'  
'That's the vault Hagrid and you went to to get the-' she paused.  
'How did you know that?' he asked.  
'Lucky guess?' she smiled. 'Well, best be off, class and all. C'mon Angelina!' she yelled down the table to her friend. Angelina leaned down and made eye contact with her, she had her mouth full.  
'Where're we going?' she asked.  
'To class now lets go.' she said as she got up and hauled her out of the great hall.  
'Wait! To get the what?' Harry yelled.

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	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

By the end of that day the whole school was talking about Harry making the Gryffindor Quidditch team as seeker. She was walking in between Fred and George as they were heading down a crowded corridor. She was on the lookout for Harry to congratulate them. She saw his dark hair stand out from everyone else's and she ran over to him and hugged him.  
'Congratulations Harry!' she said lifting him up.  
'Put him down before you break him Emily.' Ron complained. She put him down.  
'Hey Congratulations Harry, Wood's just told us!' Fred said as he walked next to Emily, George next to Ron on the other side.  
'Fred and George are on the Quidditch team too, they're beaters.' Ron told Harry. Ron was proud of them, he just never told them.  
'Our job is to make sure you don't get beat up too bad. Can't make any promises though, rough game Quidditch!' George said to him.  
'Brutal! But, on ones died in years. Someone will vanish occasionally.' Fred joked. Harry and Ron turned to go into the courtyard terrified.  
'But they'll turn up in a month or two!' George yelled after them. Emily hit them both in the rib.  
'What was that for?'  
'Don't scare him! He'd only eleven for goodness sakes!' she complained.  
'We were just joking.' Fred smiled.  
'Yeah, I know that, you know that, Harry doesn't know that.'  
'Relax, he'll be fine.' He slung his arm over her shoulder as they continued down the corridor.

Later that night Emily was sitting by the fire in the common room. She was doing her potions homework from Snape. She had to work extra hard in all of her classes because she was already supposed to know all of this stuff, but unfortunately telling the teacher you were magically placed into this world, not knowing who you are isn't a very "legitimate" excuse. The portrait hole swung open and Harry, Ron and Hermione came zooming into the room.  
'What do they think they're doing? Keeping something like that locked up in a school!' Ron shouted.  
'You don't use your eyes do you-'  
'It was guarding something.' Emily finished smiling. The three turned around to see Emily sitting beside the fire. 'You found the dog didn't you?'  
'How did you know that?'  
'I was in the same corridor the other day, came across that room. I was lucky to get out alive.' she lied.  
'We need to find out what it was guarding.' Harry turned to the other two.  
'Oh no, I'm going to bed before one of you come up with another great idea to get us killed. Or worse, expelled!' Hermione turned around and walked up the stairs to her dorm room and slammed the door.  
'She needs to sort out her priorities.' Emily laughed.  
'G'night guys, try not to get into too much trouble.' Emily left the common room and headed to her room.

First thing in the morning Emily got up and made her way to Dumbledore's office. It was Halloween. she wanted to make sure he knew the troll was going to get stuck in the girls bathroom tonight. She got there and rushed through the door and saw him at his desk, with a magnifying glass.  
'Ms. Ryan?'  
'Hi. I just wanted to know if you were aware of what's going to be coming into the castle tonight.' Dumbledore laughed.  
'You're only reminded me countless other times. I don't know how I could forget.' Emily smiled.  
'Alright. I'll just be going then.'  
'Emily.' he called. She turned around and Dumbledore tossed her a chocolate frog. 'Happy Halloween.'  
'Thanks.' She left the room and went on with her classes like she did the day before. Right before dinner she had potions with Snape. It was really fun today. Fred was her lab partner and the two of them made the wrong potion, which made anyone who sniffed it's nose turn different colours. They didn't really care about failing. Each of them kept sniffing it, almost dieing with laughter.

The Great Hall was beautifully decorated with Halloween decorations everywhere. There were bright orange pumpkins that were floating in the air, and the sky looked all stormy, with lightning and thunder. there was all sorts of candy. There was a huge pile of candy corn on a tray, stacked high like it was going to fall over. A bowl of candy apples that had a shiny tint to them from the lit pumpkins up above. Everyone was enjoying it. Emily was eating a candy apple and talking to Angelina while doing so.  
'This is so good!'  
'you look like you've never had any of this before.' she laughed. Emily laughed along. She looked down the table and caught Fred's eye, he seemed to be staring at her a lot these days. He quickly blushed and looked away. 'What are you looking at?' Angelina turned her head and smiled.  
'What?' Emily asked confused.  
'Nothing.'  
'No that wasn't nothing. what are you smiling at?'  
'Well it's just, have you seen Fred staring at you? It's been happening a lot lately.'  
'Oh my god, you notice it too?' they laughed.

'TROLL IN THE DUNGEON! TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!' Quirrel came barging into the great hall screaming. He stopped in the middle of the room. 'Just thought you'd like to know.' He fainted and everyone started to scream. Students were running around looking terrified. Emily looked up at Dumbledore for instructions, almost completely calm. She thought it was actually pretty funny, watching everyone freak out like that. Draco looked like he had seen a ghost. She loved his expression most of all.  
'SILENCE!' Dumbledore yelled, the whole hall went deadly quiet. 'Everyone, please don't panic! Now, would all prefects lead the students back to their houses. Teachers, follow me to the third floor corridor.' Everyone did as they were told, and we all followed Percy to the dormitory. Harry pulled Ron aside.  
'What?' he asked.  
'Hermione, she doesn't know about the troll!' He explained.  
'Well we can't just leave. They'll notice!'  
'Go, I'll cover you.' Emily told them. They thanked her and ran off.

Emily was pacing back and forth in the common room. The twins and Angelina sitting on the couch looking at her.  
'Relax Em they'll be fine.' Fred told her.  
'You don't think I already know that? I'm still nervous.' just then they came into the common room. Emily turned around and saw Hermione and ran up to hug her. 'I'm so glad you're okay. I was so worried.'  
'I'm fine.' she smiled and held her closer.  
'Ron, I think you owe her an apology.' Emily told him.  
'I'm sorry Hermione.'  
'It's okay. I'm going to go to bed now. Good night everyone.' the three of them went up to their rooms and went to sleep.  
'I think I'm going to get some sleep. Quidditch game in the morning.' Angelina stood up and hugged Emily.  
'G'night Ange.' It was really quiet after that. George looked between the two of them.  
'I think I'll hit the sack too. Angelina's right. Game in the morning and all.'  
'Night Georgy.' Fred called out. Emily stood there still with a worried expression on her face.  
'I told you they would be fine.' he stood up and walked over to her.  
'Yeah, I know.' she whispered.  
'Then why do you still looked worried?'  
'I don't know. It's just been a long week.' she sighed. It was quiet again. 'Fred?'  
'Yeah?'  
'Do I live in an orphanage?' she asked. he nodded.  
'Why?'  
I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I still have a family.' she said with a smile. Fred hugged her.  
'Good night Em.' he said and let go. He headed up and went to bed. 'You didn't answer my question!' Emily sat laid down on the couch and fell asleep.

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	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

Like Emily had assumed, Winter was on its way; and so was Christmas. She was walking on the white covered grass in the courtyard. She looked up and saw snow falling from the sky. She looked down to her right and saw Hagrid hauling in the Christmas tree.  
'Need a hand with that Hagrid?' she asked.  
'Oh no dear, I'm fine.' he said as he continued to drag it in through the doors.  
'Are you sure? It looks heavy.'  
'That's alright, that's why they got me bringing it in and not you lot.' she laughed and walked with him into the great hall. It was almost empty, just a few students saying their goodbyes and ghost wondering the halls singing Christmas carols. From what she saw, most of the students were going home for Christmas. Emily would have loved to do the same, but she knew she couldn't. She also really didn't want to go to the orphanage this summer where she would have to pretend like she wasn't a witch; which would have been easy if she were to do it a few months ago. She's gotten warmed up to her new life. Everyone was so nice.

Emily sat at the end of the Gryffindor table watching a few teachers put the tree up. She admired how nice the hall looked already, and it wasn't even finished yet. Then she got poked in the back and she jumped up out of her seat.  
'Ouch, that hurt.' she complained. She turned around to see the twins.  
'Oh I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you.' Fred said. 'Will you be able to forgive me?'  
'No I don't think that's possible.' she teased. 'Where are your bags?' she didn't see them.  
'Change of plans, mum and dad are going to Romania for Christmas.' George said.  
'That's right. Charlie works with dragons there.' she smiled.  
'What about you? Going back to the orphanage?' he asked. Emily's smile faded and she walked to the big doors and slumped against them.  
'I don't think I want to. An orphanage doesn't really sound like somewhere I want to be.' she said.  
'What's wrong? You never had a problem going back there before.' George asked as the two of them slumped against the wall between her.  
'I don't know. I guess I'm just changing.'  
'Well obviously, you're a woman now.' George teased. Emily laughed and hit him on the head.  
'No, I mean- never mind. I'm staying here for Christmas. Good night.' She kissed them both on the cheek, got up and headed for the common room.

Fred and George sat there for a bit and admired the hall.  
'Strange don't you think?' Fred asked. George looked over at his twin confused.  
'What do you mean?' he asked.  
'Well, Emily. She seems different, a little bit off, strange.'  
'She's always been strange.'  
'Stanger than usual.' Fred explained.  
'In what way Fred?'  
'It's like you said, she's never had a problem with the orphanage before, and now it seems like whenever we mention it, she gets all depressed.'  
'It's probably a girl thing. I bet you she's talking to Angelina about it right now.' George assured her. 'C'mon we should get to bed. Tomorrow's Christmas.' They got up and left the hall.  
'Happy Christmas.' Hermione said all perky as she walked by them into the hall.

* * *

'Emily wake up! Wake up!' Emily woke up to Angelina shaking her awake. 'Wake up! It's Christmas!'  
'Why do I care. I don't have a family to share it with. I doubt I even have a gift.' she mumbled as she fell back against her pillow.  
'Oh come on, it'll be fun. It doesn't matter if you get gifts, it's about being with each other.' Emily didn't move. Katie let out an frustrated breath. 'Plus Fred's down there.'  
'Why would that change my mind?' Emily asked turning her head.  
'Oh please.' she waved her hand. 'Just come downstairs.'  
'Fine.' she said into her pillow. Angelina closed the door behind her.

She got dressed and went downstairs to see everyone down there already opening presents and drinking butterbeer. She walked around the couch and fell onto it with a tired smile.  
'Morning Em.' The twins said.  
'morning, happy Christmas.' she smiled. Ron came up to her with a shiny purple box. 'What's this?'  
'It's from mum. She got word that you weren't going home for the holidays and made you this.' he said. She hugged him and took the package. She opened it and saw a beautiful, dark blue, hand knitted sweater with the letter "E" on it.  
'Wow. This is amazing.' she said. She looked over at Harry who was wearing the same one, but with the letter "H" on it. 'I see she found out you weren't going home either.' Harry laughed and began to eat his chocolate frog he got from Ron, then she remembered something. 'You guys already open your presents?' she asked.  
'Yes.' they said with their mouths full.  
'Anything good?' Ron looked over at Harry with wide eyes.  
'No, not really.' Harry smiled and continued eating.

The rest of the morning went by and Emily had a pretty good time. Sure, she wasn't with her family, but it wasn't a bad Christmas. She spent it with Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Harry, Ron and the twins. There wasn't many students at the school, about three dozen in total over the winter break so they spent the rest of the winter break outside playing with the untouched snow. They were having a small dinner at the end of the table. Emily looked over at Harry, who was staring into the fireplace just a few feet away from them. Ron was watching as well. Emily nudged him and gestured him to go talk to his friend about the mirror and cheer him up a bit. Harry wanted to see his parents again, she knew the feeling.

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	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**

End of the year exams were right around the corner and Emily was studying like crazy. Sure, she's supposedly taken them before, but that was the problem! Her teachers knew what she was capable of and knew how she was going to do on her exams, at least everyone except Snape but he already expected Emily to study since she would be taking third year exams but she was mentally a first year. It was just after dusk outside and she was sitting at the round wooden table in the common room with all of her books out in front of her. Harry, Ron and Hermione came down the stairs dragging their feet and moping as they hung their heads.  
'From the looks on your faces, I'm assuming you three have detention tonight.' Emily frowned.  
'It's not fair! Malfoy followed us out of the castle and was spying on us through Hagrid's window and told McGonagall that we were out after curfew. Now we have detention.' Harry complained.  
'It's horrible, this means I won't have time to study tonight Emily.' Hermione said disappointed. They were going to have a little study party with the two of them, now it would be a party for one.  
'That's okay, I'll see you when you get back.' She hugged her and the three of them left the common room and met Filch in the entrance hall.

Emily spent the last hour reviewing her notes on potion making. She wanted to make sure she got a perfect score on her potions exam. She wanted to impress Snape, to show him she was able to do this. Soon Emily's mind was drifting from her notes, and her eyes would focus out. She closed her book and looked over at the clock. It was almost ten o'clock. The entire room was empty, the only light was coming from the fireplace just a few feet away from her. She walked over to the fireplace and sat down beside it. It truly was her favourite spot in the common room. Emily laid her head back on the stone wall and looked into the fire. Harry, Ron and Hermione came into the common room with dirt and sweat all over them. Emily quickly stood up.  
'What happened?' She said as she rushed over to them.  
'Harry and Draco found the injured unicorn in the dark forest.' Ron said catching his breath.  
'Voldemort was feeding off of it. He's out there.' Hermione said as she took a seat on the arm chair.  
'Of course, that's the only way he would be able to survive.' Emily said as she sat back down by the fire.  
'You mean You-know-who is out there right now, in the forest?' Hermione asked.  
'Yes but he's weak, and we know he's living off unicorns. Don't you see, we had it wrong. Snape doesn't want the stone for himself, he wants the stone for Voldemort.'  
'Wow wait a second. Why is it that you think Snape wants it?' Emily asked.  
'With the elixir of life Voldemort will be strong again.' Harry sat down on the couch. He'll come back.'  
'If he comes back you don't think he'll try to kill you would you?' Ron asked.  
'Hang on a moment, you're forgetting one thing.' They all looked over at Hermione.  
'What?'  
'Who's the one wizard Voldemort always feared? Dumbledore. As long as Dumbledore's around Harry, you're safe. As long as Dumbledore's around, you can't be touched.' she said.  
'But what about when he's not?' Harry asked. Emily looked down at her lap. She knew _exactly _what would happen then.

Harry, Ron and Hermione waited until everyone went to bed to sneak out. They wanted to make sure no one would catch them out so late. They quietly came down the stairs and quickly looked around to make sure no one was in there. Then they saw a toad sitting on the armrest of the arm chair.  
'Trevor!' Harry said in a loud whisper.  
'Trevor, go! You shouldn't be here!' Ron exclaimed. The chair turned around and Neville stood up out of the chair.  
'Neither should you.' he said. 'You're all sneaking out again aren't you?'  
'No Neville listen-'  
'No, I won't let you. You'll get Gryffindor into trouble again. I-I'll fight you.' Neville raised his arms and brought his fists in front of his face.  
'Neville, I'm really really sorry about this but, _petrificus totalus_.' Hermione casted the spell and Neville froze and fell to the ground.  
'You're a little scary sometimes you know that? Brilliant; but scary.' Ron said to her.

'Harry? Hermione? Ron?' Came a voice from behind them. They all raised their wands and looked in that direction. 'Oh would you relax! It's only me.' Emily said. They put away their wands and relaxed a little bit. 'I know you're going down there tonight so I just wanted to tell you to be careful alright?' They nodded and turned to leave. 'Oh, and good luck.' They left quietly through the portrait hole and she picked Neville up. 'why are you so heavy!' she gritted her teeth as she dragged him in the direction of the hospital wing where she laid him on a bed and left him there. Someone would find him by morning of course and tend to the spell that was cast on him.

'Em, what a great year this has been huh?' Fred said as he saw her slouching against the wall in a day dream.  
'What? Oh, yes.' she smiled.  
'I'm sure next year's going to be even better.' Emily looked around.  
'Where's George?' she asked.  
'Oh, he's already in the Great hall waiting for us. I just wanted to make sure you were alright. You seemed a little distracted the other day.'  
'Yeah, of course I'm fine. I just-' she smiled and leaned against the wall.  
'What?' he smiled back.  
'I just don't want to go home. It's so nice here, why do we have to leave?' she asked.  
'Well people have to see their families sometime Em.'  
'I know, well I guess.' she got up and they headed to the great hall where they would have their final feast and say their goodbyes.

The food was amazing, almost as good as the first night she was here. After the dinner Dumbledore called Emily up to his office. She got up to the door and knocked, she heard a faint 'Come in' and did so.  
'There you are Ms. Ryan.' he said getting up and walking over to her.  
'Hi sir. What's this about?' she asked.  
'I wanted to thank you for proving most useful this year and once again I'm sorry for how this all turned out.' he said. Emily looked down at her hands, remembering the night she talked to Dumbledore.  
'It was no problem sir, it was the right thing to do.'  
'I should truly make it up to you.' he said. Emily looked up curiously.  
'How so?'  
'Well from what I understand you are currently living in an Orphanage and you aren't very happy about your current condition.' she nodded. 'Well I would like to personally welcome you to live with me in the castle.' he said.  
'What?' she asked, not sure if she had heard him correctly.  
'It would be the best way to keep a keen eye on you as when Voldemort returns you will be a great prize to him.' he said. 'That is, if you rather stay at the orphanage I could-'  
'Yes! Yes! Thank you! Thank you so much sir!' she rushed over and hugged him. 'But um, where would I stay? My dorm room?'  
'There is a guest quarters up the stairs and to your right. You will stay there for summers and _only _summers. When Class resumes you will be put back into Gryffindor tower just like all the other students, understood?'  
'Absolutely.' she assured him. She turned to leave and almost walked out the door, 'Thank you again sir, you have no idea how much I wanted to get away from there.' she smiled.

Emily walked down the corridors with the biggest smile on her face. She looked around and saw all the students belongings around them and all packed.  
'Em! Where's your trunk?' George asked as the twins cam up to her. She smiled even bigger.  
'In my room.' They were confused.  
'Well you should go get it, we're leaving in a half hour for Hogsmeade station.' Fred said.  
'I'm not going back to the orphanage guys.' she couldn't hold it in anymore. 'Dumbledore's letting me stay here all summer.' she cheered.  
'You're joking! He's really going to do that?'  
'Yeah, I was completely caught off guard, I thought he just wanted to know- never mind.' she laughed. 'I'll see you guys next year alright. Write everyday!' she hugged them and watched them leave.  
'Is it true?' she turned around and saw Hermione. 'That you're staying here?'  
'Yes.' she nodded.  
'That's amazing Emily! I can't wait for next year!' she ran up and hugged Emily.  
'Now go on, you'll miss the train.' she pushed Hermione out and waved good bye. For once in her life, she felt happy.

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	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7:**

About a week went by since Emily has been on summer vacation inside the castle. Dumbledore gave her the ground rules. She was not to leave the castle after dark, was not to go into the Gryffindor tower, was to show up at all meal times and where ever she went she had to return before dusk. Emily was fine with these rules, she really wouldn't have done them anyways. She spent most of her time down in Hogsmeade where she would explore the shops and learn more about them. She really liked Zonko's. The shop was full of tricks, jokes and toys. She could see why the twins liked it so much, it practically screamed "Weasley" when she walked in. Another one of her favorites was the Three Broomsticks, where she would go and get a butterbeer and spend the day reading, where she was at this moment. she looked out the dusty window that was beside her table and saw that it was beginning to get dark. Emily had to get back by now.

She walked up the trail to the castle and saw the lanterns on the sides beginning to light themselves. When she came into the entrance hall she could see Dumbledore was already starting dinner. The only ones at the school were the staff over summer. They all had their own rooms of course where they've been sleeping while school was in progress. She particularly liked meal time, it was the only time she was allowed to eat next to Dumbledore himself. She put away her book and came into the hall.  
'Ah, Ms. Ryan we were beginning to worry.' he said.  
'Sorry sir, I lost track of time, won't happen again.' she assured him.  
'No problem dear.' They continued their meal, all the teachers seemed to be growing fond of Emily, all but Snape of course. It wasn't as awkward being around him as people might think. Knowing his past kind of made him less scary then how she used to think of him. I don't think he knew that _she _knew.

After dinner Emily headed up to her room, or where she was staying that summer. She was laying on her bed. the bed had a nice, white Canopy above it. The bed sheets were a dark brown silk, which she wished was a different colour. there were two night stands at each side of the bed, and a little dresser and table where a mirror was placed in front of. It was more than she had when she was home that's for sure. She could get used to this. She's been missing her friends a lot as well. Not seeing Harry, Ron, Hermione, Angelina, George, Alicia, or even Fred. She's been getting letters from him the most. They mostly talked about all of the pranks they've been pulling on poor Ginny and Ron. Honestly, she hoped Mrs. Weasley would straighten them out sooner or later.

There came a knock on her door and she let out a faint "come in" as the door opened. Dumbledore and Snape came in with books in their hands as they placed them on top of the dresser. Emily got up off of her bed and walked over to them confused.  
'What are these?' she asked.  
'Books.' Snape said with cheek.  
'I know _what _they are, but why are you bringing them to me?' she cleared up.  
'Emily since what your saying is proven true, you have missed two years of schooling.' Dumbledore began. She knew where this was leading, and hoped she was wrong. 'So we have arranged with some of your teachers for some private lessons over the summer to help you catch up.'  
'Oh but-' she complained.  
'Surely you will be just fine.' he patted her on the head.  
'But sir, there's no way I can learn two years of schooling in one summer! To the ministry I've already done it! Isn't that enough?'  
'I'm afraid not my dear. You will begin classes in the morning, is that clear.' Emily knew he only thought this was what was best for her, so she nodded. He was a smart man after all.

It was beginning to sound lonely in the castle, she so desperately wanted to leave. Don't get her wrong, she loved it, but she wanted to visit some of her friends. Anything was better than summer school. She was in the middle of a potions class with Snape. It was exhausting. She had to answer all the questions instead of letting others in the class answer them for her.  
'Sir, how much longer?'  
'Are you complaining?' he asked as he walked up to her.  
'Yes! Honestly, I'm not even going to need to know this stuff. From what we know I might wake up at any second, then what will I use this knowledge for?' she asked. Snape was quiet. 'I don't even know if I'll even remember any of it.' she murmured.  
'Wouldn't that be a good thing? Not being able to remember ones past?' he asked. She looked up at him, knowing what he was talking about.  
'Why would someone want to erase such wonderful memories? After all, there all we'll have left if someone leaves us.' Snape ignored her, and began lecturing her about the polyjuice potion. 'I already know what this is. Harry, Ron and Hermione used it in the second book to- oh never mind.' Clearly he wasn't going to care.

Her class was over around noon, so that was when she would travel back down to Hogsmeade and spend the rest of the day there after lunch. She decided to write a letter to the twins.  
_Dear Fred and George,  
I hope your summer's been great so far. I've been spending my days here at the castle wondering the corridors looking for some new hidden secrets and such, no luck so far though. Besides that I'm at Hogsmeade where I spend most of my time in the Three Broomsticks reading stories to myself. I hope you guys write back soon, it gets pretty lonely here alone, there's only so much I can talk about around teachers. Also, cut Ginny and Ron some slack, they aren't test subjects, they're your siblings!  
Love, Emily. _  
She took the letter up to the owlery on her way to see Hagrid where she attached it to a school owl and sent it off in the direction of the Burrow. She couldn't wait for next year to begin!

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	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:**

Emily was reviewing her Charms book in her room one late night when she had yet another knock on her door, this time it was McGonagall who came in.  
'Good evening professor, what can I help you with?' she asked putting down her book.  
'Dumbledore just wanted me to remind you that he will be sending you, along with Hagrid, to Diagon Alley tomorrow to collect your books for this year's classes.'  
'But, how am I to pay for all of it?' she asked worried.  
'No need to worry, Professor Dumbledore has that covered.' she said. It was August 31st tonight, she was soon going to be back in Gryffindor tower. Emily always liked to try to stay optimistic, no matter what situation she was in. She put away her things and jumped into bed, where she laid her head on the pillow and looked up at the ceiling. Slowly falling asleep.

Emily woke up and got dressed for the trip today. She would be going with Hagrid to get her school books. It was going to be an awesome year.  
'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.' she said to herself in the mirror. 'This year's going to be full of surprises.' with that, she left the room and went down to Hagrid's Hut.  
'Good mornin' Emily!' he said as he invited her in.  
'Morning Hagrid. How are we getting to Diagon Alley?' she asked before fully stepping into the hut.  
'Floo powder of course.'  
'Great! Something I know how to do.' she cheered. They sat for breakfast before they left. Emily would be spending the whole day, up to until they got to the train station, with Hagrid. After that, Hagrid told Emily to step into the fireplace.  
'Okay, speak clearly and away you go.' he said. She grabbed a handful of Floo powder and held it in her hand beside her.  
'Diagon Alley.' she spoke clearly. She dropped the dust and green flames erupted and Emily was gone in a flash.

Emily came soaring out of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron. She got up and moments later Hagrid appeared.  
'Traveled alright?' he asked, she nodded. 'Good. Now let's get a move on, lots to do and only so much time.' They headed for the back and got into Diagon Alley no problem. They were walking down the narrow alley with almost shoulder to shoulder people. It was just as it was described as in the book, and looked like in the movie. She could see everything, from Flourish and Blots all the way down to Gringotts.  
'This is amazing.' Emily looked impressed.  
'Is it alright if I leave you in Flourish and Blots for a quick moment, I have to go and get something.' he asked.  
'Ya no problem.' she waved good bye and proceeded into the store.

'Emily!' came a loud voice. It was Hermione. She ran over to her and hugged her. Emily was pushed back a bit by this. 'It's so nice to see you again! this is going to be such a wonderful year! Do you know who are professor for the defence against the dark arts is going to be?'  
'Oh yes. I'm _well_ aware of who it's going to be.' she smiled and hugged her back.  
'Oh! I almost forgot, come meet my parents!' she pulled Emily in the direction of her parents. 'Mom, dad, this is Emily. The girl I was talking about.'  
'Oh yes, Emily, we have heard so many things about you.' Mrs. Granger shook her hand, followed by Mr. Granger.  
'good things I hope?'  
'Of course, w want to thank you for being such a nice young role model for her. She doesn't have a sister or brother to help keep her in line.' Mr. Granger said.  
'Well thank you so much, that's really nice of you.' Emily blushed. Emily looked around the packed shop. Mr. Gilderoy Lockhart was supposed to be doing a book signing in there in a few moments.  
'You alright Emily?' Hermione asked.  
'Yeah, I'm just wondering- have you seen Harry anywhere? Or Ron?' she asked.  
'The Weasley's are around here somewhere, but I don't think I've seen Harry.'  
'Why don't you take a quick look outside.'

Emily walked around the shop looking at the various moving pictures of Lockhart. He was the most annoying man she thought ever existed. She picked up a book on a table that said "Magical Me" with a picture of him on it of course. She opened it up and began reading.  
'Don't tell me you're obsessed with him too?' came a voice. She closed the book and turned around.  
'Fred.' she smiled and ran up to hug him. She's missed him so much.  
'Are you?' he asked picking up the book in her hands and skimming though it.  
'No. He's a complete fraud.' she laughed taking it away from him. 'So how was your summer?'  
'Boring. I had to little Ginny talk about Harry Potter all summer.' he said.  
'Of course, isn't it obvious?' he looked at her confused. 'She has a crush on him.'  
'A what?'  
'Oh- a, um...she fancies him.' she cleared up. She put the book back on the table as Hermione came running back into the shop with Harry. 'Speaking of Harry.' she said.  
'Emily, have a nice summer?' Harry greeted.  
'It was alright. Glad I wasn't stuck in an Orphanage that's for sure.'  
'Oh Harry, thank heavens you're alright!' Mrs. Weasley came up to them all. 'And Emily dear, it's nice to see you again.' she hugged Emily. Again? They've met before?

Clapping started throughout the entire store as they directed their attention towards the front where Lockhart stepped out. A man cut through everyone to get a picture for the daily profit when Lockhart looked past him to Harry.  
'Harry Potter.' he murmured. The photographer turned in the direction he was looking and pulled Harry up with Lockhart. Emily rolled her eyes and left the crowd. She went to look at all of the other books in the store. She walked up to Fred and George who were making fun of one of Lockhart's books.  
'This guy is ridiculous!' George laughed.  
'Would you two stop it, he might hear you.' she whispered.  
'I hope so. It would be the most honest review of his book he's ever gotten.' Fred laughed. She joined in and laughed with them. She missed them.

The group began to form a line where the books were being signed and Harry pushed out of the crowd to get some air.  
'I bet you loved that didn't you Potter.' Draco said as he made his way down the stairs and in front of Harry. 'Famous Harry Potter. Can't even go into a book store without making the front page.'  
'Leave him alone.' Ginny stood up for him as the rest of the Weasley's, Emily and Hermione gathered around.  
'Oh look, Potter's got a girlfriend!' Draco teased.  
'Now now Draco, play nicely.' Lucius said as he came in behind Draco and moved him out of the way so he could see the rest of the group, till his eyes fell on Harry. 'Ah, Mr. Potter.' he put out his hand and Harry shook it. 'We meet at last, forgive me-' he pulled Harry forward to look at his scar. 'Your scar is legend, as is the wizard who had given it to you of course.'  
'Voldemort killed my parents, he was nothing else but a murderer.' Harry said to him. "You must be very brave to say his name; or rather very foolish.' Lucius argued.  
'Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing it's self.' Hermione spoke up. Lucius walked over to her.  
'Ah, and you must be Miss Granger. Yes Draco's told me so much about you, and your parents. Muggles aren't they?' Hermione looked down at her feet. Lucius's eyes fell on Emily who shot him daggers into his eyes. 'Emily Ryan. The orphan who's staying with Dumbledore I presume?' he asked.  
'Yes, he really is a wonderful man.' she smiled.  
'To take a young woman such as yourself under his wing.' Lucius said. 'Let me see, red hair, vacant expression, you must be the Weasley's.' He picked up Ginny's old book and looked at it. Mr. Weasley came up and interrupted.  
'Children, it's mad out here. Let's go outside shall we?'  
'Ah, Weasley Senior. Is it a busy time at the Ministry with all those extra raids? I surely hope they're paying you over time for all of that hard work. Judging by the state of things, I'd say not.' He put the book back into Ginny's cauldron, along with the diary. 'What's the use of being the disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?'  
'We have a very different idea about what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy.' Mr. Weasley said.  
'Clearly. I'll see you at work. Come Draco.' Lucius said. 'Oh and Ms. Ryan I'm sure we will meet again soon.' he added, making her skin crawl.

'There you are Emily- oh I see you're in good hands here.' Hagrid said as he came into the shop. 'Don't forget to grab your books and get back to school.' They left the store and continued their shopping day. Emily was quiet for most of the time. She just hoped Finny would be able to handle the diary, well of course she would, wouldn't she?

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	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9:**

Emily was escorted with the Weasley's to platform nine and three quarters. She ran right through and gave her stuff to the men loading the train. It was almost time to depart and went to go find a seat. She was searching the compartments with the twins whispering and laughing about some new jokes and pranks they've been creating. Everything seemed full!  
'Oh come on, here's one.' she smiled as she entered, putting her carry on on the stop shelf above her side of the compartment. She pushed it in with help of Fred, as she was too short to do it herself. 'Thanks.' she said blushing. She didn't know why, but the way he smiled at her made her heart flutter. Emily had always liked Fred, like _really_ liked him. He was funny, charming, sweet, nice, and very attractive. But this wasn't a story anymore. She couldn't just think about that kind of stuff without there being something wrong. He was a real person.

She sat down on one side, and the twins on the other.  
'So, how was your summer?' she asked.  
'Pretty well-'  
'As long as summers go.' George finished for his twin. Emily laughed, she thought it was funny when they finished each other's sentences.  
'What about you? How was it living in Hogwarts all summer?' he asked.  
'Not as fun as I thought it would be. Sure, there was no orphanage, nobody really telling me what to do, but Dumbledore made me- well he made do some extra work.'  
'What kind of work? It wasn't school work was it?' George asked.  
'Yes it was. It was alright actually. It was nice getting a sort of, head start on my class work.' She said, when she was really "catching up" on her work. The train ride went by with a lot of laughs and a lot of storytelling. They even bought some candy to pass the time. They looked out the window and saw the flying car.  
'I reckon Ron's going to get an earful when mum finds out huh Georgy?' Fred teased.  
'I'm sure they'll be just fine.' Emily said as she watched the two second years trying to hold themselves together up above in the car. It was quite a show, no doubt other students were watching it from their windows as well.

Emily left the compartment to go get changed into her uniform, they were going to arrive soon. On her way back she passed an almost empty compartment with none other than Ginny Weasley, sitting on one side of the small room with her hands in her lap, folded across a small black book looking out the dark window. Emily knocked on the window and smiled when she got her attention. Ginny waved and Emily opened the door. Ginny put her hands over the book, like she was covering it. Emily sat down across from her.  
'Were you in here all alone Ginny?' she asked. Ginny nodded. 'Why?'  
'I don't know anyone else really. Guess I'm just shy.' she said quietly. Emily smiled a bit to herself.  
'Well you could come sit up with me and your brothers if you want?' she asked.  
'No it's okay, we're almost there now anyways. Maybe next time.' it was awkwardly quiet for a few moments, then Emily eyed the book.  
'What book is that? I don't think I've had that one before.'  
'Oh, um. I's my own book from home.' she lied. Emily leaned in.  
'Be careful with that Ginny, alright? I don't want you to get hurt.' she whispered. Ginny's face was unreadable. Emily said goodbye and left the compartment where she went to go back to her own.  
'What took you so long?' Fred asked as she came in and sat down.  
'Nothing, I just went to visit your sister.' she said quietly.  
'And?' George asked.  
'I don't know. And I guess we just talked a little bit. You know, girl stuff.'

* * *

They were in the great hall, waiting for the sorting ceremony to begin. Emily was happy to be starting another year with her friends. Angelina couldn't stop talking about the vacation she had over the summer. Emily hardly got a word in besides "Hi" or "How are you?" That's okay though, she didn't really care. The big doors swung open and Professor McGonagall came into the hall with a handful of students who were going to get sorted. Ginny got into Gryffindor, of course, no surprise there. The dinner was nice. Everywhere you looked there were all happy faces, some with food coming out of their mouths, but happy nonetheless. Everyone was there, everyone but Harry and Ron. That's right! They were down in the dungeons listening to Snape go on and on about how dangerous it was to have flown a car to Hogwarts.

After dinner, when everyone was heading back to their dormitories, Emily snuck away from the crowd and headed down to the dungeons, shortly after Dumbledore had. She wanted to hear what was going to happen. She searched the dark corridors until she got to Snape's office. She slowly crept up to the door and put an ear against the door.  
'Headmaster, these two have faltered the decree of restriction of under aged wizardry, as such.' Snape said with anger.  
'I'm well aware of our laws Severus. I've made a few myself.' Dumbledore said calmly.  
'Hey'  
'Oh my god!' She whispered loudly, so they wouldn't hear her. She turned around and saw Fred. Her heart almost fell out of her chest. 'Why would you do that?'  
'I don't know, perfect opportunity I suppose.' he laughed quietly. 'What are you doing down here?' he asked.  
'Listening to see what happens to Harry and your brother.' They both quieted down and resumed listening.  
'We'll go and get our stuff then.' Ron said depressed.  
'What are you talking about Mr. Weasley?' McGonagall asked.  
'Well, you're going to expel us aren't you?'  
'Not today. But I hope you two will remember how serious this is.' she said. 'I'll be writing to both your families tonight, and you will both receive detention.' Emily let out a breath she had held in for quite some time. The two of them heard footsteps coming their way and fled.

They continued walking down the corridors, watching to see if anyone would spot them as it was way past curfew.  
'Wow, detention on the first day back, I've never even done that!' Fred laughed.  
'Serves them right! They shouldn't have ever taken that car.' Emily said frustrated.  
'Oh c'mon, everyone needs a little adventure while they're growing up.' he said. He looked like he got an idea, because he stopped right in the middle of the hall. 'In fact, I have a little adventure in my mind right now.'  
'What are you talking about?' she asked confused.  
'Come on.' He grabbed her hand and they headed in the opposite direction of where they were going before.

They ended up at a portrait of a bowl of fruit.  
'The kitchen.' she said, her tone as if she was expecting more. 'This is your idea of an adventure?' she asked. Fred laughed and let go of her hand, reaching up to tickle the little pear, making it laugh and opening up a doorway. He grabbed her hand again and slowly led her through. It was dimly lit, there were four tables which house elves were cleaning up. The elves were putting away left over's and some even noticed the two of them. One of them even knew Fred from an earlier visit.  
'Been here before?' she asked, raising an eyebrow.  
'Of course. Best place in the whole castle.'  
'That's only because you love eating.' she joked. He went over to a counter at the back and asked a house elf to get them a desert. Emily took a seat on the counter and Fred came back with three little, chocolate cupcakes. He sat on the counter as well and handed her one. 'I love chocolate.' she said. They sat on the counter talking about stuff they never really got to talk about. Fred always wanted her to try out for Quidditch, thought she would be good at it. She wasn't. There was one cupcake left.  
'Here you have it.' he said as he handed it to her.  
'No way. If I take it I'm going to be up all night thinking about how I took the last cupcake without sharing. We'll split it.'  
'Fine. We'll split it.' he took off the paper covering and ripped it in half, giving her a piece. She looked at him with an eyebrow raised. 'What?' he asked confused.  
'why is it that you get the big piece?' they both laughed.  
'I get it because I'm a boy and I need my strength.'  
'so?' she laughed.  
'Oh c'mon! Please?' he asked, it really looked like he wanted the big piece.  
'Ugh, FINE.' he smiled and bit into his piece.

They headed back to the common room where Emily would finally get to sleep in her dorm. She had Filch bring in all her stuff from where she was staying with Dumbledore all summer. She had no idea why he would have even agreed to something like that. He wasn't very nice. The next day she would have to remind Dumbledore about the diary. That made her think about poor Ginny. Ginny was a nice girl, would have never done anything like that if she wasn't in a trance. She also thought about the Chamber of Secrets. She would have to warn Fred about Ginny. She couldn't stand to see him worried when he found out.  
'Well, good night Em.' Fred said.  
'Good night. You know, it was a pretty good adventure.' she smiled. 'We should do it again. we haven't really had any time to ourselves in a long time.' she blushed.  
'I know what you mean, sleep well.' they went their separate ways and entered their rooms where the last thought they both had, was about the other.

* * *

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	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10:**

It was a warm, Tuesday afternoon and Emily was sitting beside Hermione in the great hall where they all had their study block together. Ron was in the process of repairing his own wand by hand. Tape was flying in every direction you could think of.  
'Say it, I'm doomed.' he said to Harry.  
'Yup. You're doomed.' Emily laughed.  
'Ron, isn't that you're owl?' Dean Thomas asked pointing to the roof. The owl came swooping into the hall and landed in a bowl of chips. It got all over Emily. She looked over at the twins who were laughing their heads off. She sent them a glare and started picking bits of crumbs out of her and Hermione's hair.  
'Well, well, well... Ron, you better open that.' she said smiling at the red envelope.  
'What is it?' Harry asked.  
'That, Harry, is a howler.' she said.  
'A howler?'  
'Yes. It's sort of like a letter, only it reads its self. And this one, is sure to be full of surprises. It's from his mom.' she smirked.  
'Go on then Ron, open it up.' Ron suddenly got really nervous. He picked up the envelope and began to open it, when it sprung from his hands and into the air.

'Ronald Weasley! How dare you steal that car! I am absolutely disgusted! Your father is now facing an inquiry at work, and it is entirely your fault! If you put another toe out of line, we'll send you straight home!' The envelope shouted, sounding like Mrs. Weasley. Ron's face was turning an even deeper red then the colour of his hair. The letter turned to Ginny down the table, 'And Ginny dear, congratulations for making Gryffindor. Your father and I are so proud.' she said in a completely sweet voice that sounded nothing like it did a moment ago. The letter hissed at Ron and tore its self up, leaving little piece of paper on the table right in front of him. The whole room was silent. You could hear a pin drop from a mile away, like it was right beside your ear. Ron looked more embarrassed then Emily could have ever imagined.

Everyone soon left the hall and went to their next class. Fortunately for Emily, she had Defence Against the Dark Arts...yay... At least the twins would be there to make her laugh. They all walked inside the room and took their seats. There were portraits of Lockhart all over the room.  
'Someone's a little obsessed with themselves.' she murmured to herself. Soon everyone was quiet, and the door opened above the staircase. Lockhart came though it and leaned over the railing, smiling.  
'Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for this year. Me.' He came strolling down the staircase smiling like a complete fraud. Emily couldn't help having a kind of disgusted look on her face. She turned around and looked at the rest of the class. Everyone looked like they were swooning over him, like he was some sort of major celebrity. Fred, who was sitting beside her, leaned in.  
'Please tell me you think he's a bloke and aren't completely obsessed with him like the rest of the girls in here.' he said as Lockhart was writing something down on the chalk board.  
'I don't know... He is quite handsome.' she joked. Fred looked at her shocked. 'It was a joke Fred. I already told you he's a fraud.' she laughed. Fred laughed and they went on with class.

It finally ended and they were all set free.  
'Oh finally!' George began, it seemed like he was gasping for air. 'He wears WAY too much perfume! I can't believe Dumbledore made him our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.' he said angrily. 'I never thought I'd say this but-'  
'I rather have Snape.' Fred finished for his twin. They all laughed and headed back to the common room, for that was their last class of the day, thank god.

It was just after four in the afternoon and Emily was sitting on the couch in the common room reading her potions spell book, when she felt the need to go talk to Dumbledore. She got up and headed out of the common room, towards his office. When she got there she knocked on the door and came in.  
'Ah, Emily. What brings you here at this time?' he asked.  
'Hi headmaster. I was just wondering, well I-'  
'What is it?' he asked again.  
'I was just wondering, how many times have you searched the castle for the Chamber of Secrets?' she asked.  
'A countless number I'm afraid.' he said. Emily looked down at her shoes. 'I have no doubt in my mind that you know where it is.' he chuckled. Emily laughed and looked up at him.  
'Of course.'  
'And yes, I know you cannot tell me, I wouldn't have it any other way.' he smiled. 'Why do you ask anyways?'  
'Because it's going to be opened once more.' she blurted out.  
'That's impossible.' he said.  
'No, it's not. Not only will it be opened again, but the monster within it will be released, and it will petrify a number of students. The creature is a basilisk.'  
'There is no such way a basilisk can be hidden in the school for so many years without anyone noticing Emily.' he said sternly.  
'Well I' telling you the truth!' she said.  
'It is impossible.' he said in the same voice.  
'Are you saying that you don't believe me?' she asked, looking him in the eyes.  
'Right now is not the time Emily.' he said going back to work. Emily let out a long and frustrated sigh, and stormed out of the room. When she opened the door Harry was there, with his hand raised, about to knock. Her eyes were wide, she hoped he didn't hear anything. She looked back at Dumbledore, who hasn't even looked up from his desk, then back to Harry. She quickly left the room and slammed the door, frustrated at him.

She hauled Harry by the shirt down an empty corridor, where she put him up against a wall and tried to gather her thoughts. She looked up at him, he didn't seem to know anything.  
'How much did you hear?' she asked, clearing her throat.  
'When?' he asked, he looked scared.  
'Just now, in Dumbledore's office.' she cleared up. Harry shook his head. 'Answer me!' she raised her voice.  
'Nothing, I heard nothing.'  
'Nothing?'  
'Nothing. I swear.' he repeated. Emily stood back a bit to make Harry feel a little more relaxed. She calmed down a bit.  
'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.' she said more sincere.  
'It's alright.' he said, fixing his robe. Emily looked at him, searching his eyes to see if he was lying. She found no such trace of any lie. She walked away, making her way back to the common room.

When she got there she saw Fred, George, Angelina, Wood, Katie, and Alicia all in their Quidditch gear. She came further into the room, when Wood spotted her.  
'Ah Emily, Haven't seen Harry have you?' he asked. Emily shook her head.  
'No, sorry Wood.' she mumbled. He nodded and moved on. She walked around them, heading for the staircase to go to her dorm room.  
'Emily.' she turned around and saw Fred.  
'hi.' she put on a smile. 'Where are all of you going? there's no game today is there?' she asked.  
'Oh no, of course not. Wood's just booked us a huge amount of training time this year. He's convinced that the more we practice, the more ready we'll be against Slytherin.' he smiled.  
'More Quidditch practices? That's a shame.' she said.  
'how so?' Emily hopped down the first stair and came closer to him, and whispered in his ear.  
'It's a shame because it means we'll have less time to spend with each other.' she smiled. Fred's smile faded, and turned to look at her with a curious look on his face. He was about to say something, when Wood called out that it was time to go. 'Go, they need their beater.' she smiled.  
'Why don't you come watch?' he suggested in a hurry.  
'Can't. I promised Hermione I would hang out with her in the courtyard today.' she said.  
'Weasley, let's go.' Wood called.  
'Ya, just a second alright.' he said to Wood. 'Why don't you rearrange it and hang out with her another day?'  
'Because it's been almost three months since we've spent any time together.' she said.  
'Weasley!' Wood called again.  
'I know! I'm coming!' he yelled.  
'Just go, we can do something later.' with that, Emily continued up the stairs and Fred ran off through the portrait hole.

She met up with Hermione in the Courtyard, where she was sitting under the tree with Ron, talking about his broken wand.  
'They were made for each other.' she smiled to herself. She walked over and joined them. 'Hi guys.' she said.  
'Emily!' Hermione hugged her.  
'Hey!' she hugged back. 'Hi Ron.' she said. Feeling any better?' she was referring to the howler he got earlier that day.  
'I guess. Mum can be intimidating at times.' he said.  
'She's your mom, of course she's intimidating.' Emily laughed. they went on talking about a bunch of stuff. Emily got to know Ron more too. They were looking in one of Hermione's spell books, pointing out some really interesting spells, then testing them out, when they saw the Gryffindor Quidditch team approaching, while the Slytherin one was walking across the courtyard towards them.  
'I smell trouble.' Ron said.  
'Let's go see what's going on. The three of them got up and headed towards the group of students huddled around together.

'You have a new Seeker? Who?' Wood asked as the three of them came up. Malfoy came through the crowd and smirked.  
'Malfoy?' Harry asked.  
'Ha. Now that's funny.' Emily laughed. Draco sent Emily a glare, which made her laugh even more.  
'That's not all that's new this year Potter.' he was referring to the Nimbus 2001's that his father had bought for the Slytherin Quidditch team.  
'At least no one on the Gryffindor had to buy their way in, they got in on pure talent.' Hermione shot back.  
'No one asked for your opinion, you filthy little mudblood.' Draco said.  
'You'll pay for that one Malfoy.' Ron said, raising his wand.  
'No don't!' Emily warned, but it was too late, the damage was done. Ron casted the spell, which backfired. He landed on the grass, with slugs coming out his mouth. 'Wow, it was grosser then I imagined.' she said to herself.  
'Are you okay Ron?' Hermione asked as she ran to his side, followed by the Gryffindor team, who mostly just watched. Harry and Hermione helped him up and made their way through the crowd.  
'Let's take him to Hagrid's, he'll know what to do.' Harry suggested. Emily watched as they left the courtyard.  
'That was disgusting.' George said, breaking the silence. Emily heard laughter coming from the Slytherin team. She turned around and walked towards Malfoy. She quickly smacked him across the face. The sound was so loud, only a fraction of a second.  
'how dare you.' she said completely disgusted. she pushed past him and walked away from the crowd.

She was in the corridor when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around, and to her surprise it was Fred.  
'What are you doing here?' she asked.  
'Well, if it wasn't obvious, Quidditch was cancelled.' he smiled. Emily smiled at his "subtle" hint. 'I can't believe you did that.'  
'Ya, me either.'  
'You know, you're not going to hear the end of it. Malfoy's father is probably going to call the school, demanding your expulsion.' he said.  
'Naw, Dumbledore wouldn't expel me.' she smiled.  
'What makes you so sure?' he asked coming closer to her.' he asked. She so desperately wanted to tell him.  
'Well, he just wouldn't, believe me.' she said smiling.  
'That's good.' Emily smiled at him.  
'We should probably head back to the common room. It's getting late.' she suggested.  
'Ya, you're probably right.' he said. They headed down the corridor side by side in silence. 'Or, we could head back down to the kitchen?'  
'We can't do that every night Fred!' she laughed. 'But, two nights in a row isn't so bad.' she smiled as they turned around and ran in the direction of the kitchen.

* * *

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	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11:**

Emily and Angelina were sitting beside each other at dinner. She kept going on and on about Lockhart and how "brave" he was and how handsome he was.  
'Honestly Ange, what do you see in him? He hasn't done any of the things he's said he's done in his books.'  
'Shut up! Of course he has!' Angeline said to her. 'Look at him, you're telling me that _he _didn't do all that?'  
'Yes, that's exactly what I am saying.' Emily continued to eat her dinner. She looked around the table and noticed that Harry wasn't there. She turned to Ron and Hermione, 'You two want to go get Harry? He's probably stuck in detention with Lockhart.'  
'It's been hours, what do you think they're doing?' Ron asked.  
'I don't know, answering fan mail?' she laughed, knowing she was right of course. Ron and Hermione left the table and went to search for Harry, while everyone continued finishing their dinner. It wasn't until later Emily had noticed Ginny wasn't at the table. She's been worried about her.  
'Hey Ange, I think I'll head back to the common room. See ya.' With that, she took a large last mouthful of her food and left the table.

She wandered the corridors until she came across a hall full of torches. she turned the corner and there, she saw none other than Ginny Weasley in a trance, just finishing up the last bit of the message on the wall with blood. Emily's heart sank.  
'Ginny.' she spoke with a shaky voice. She knew that this wasn't Ginny, but it hurt seeing the little first year doing it. Ginny blinked several times, and shook her head. She turned to look at Emily. Realising what she was doing, she backed away, looking like a five year old who just got caught doing something wrong. 'Ginny, I told you to be careful with the diary.' Emily spoke again coming closer to her. She looked at the wall, than back at Ginny.  
'I-I'm sorry Emily, I couldn't help it! I didn't know what to do!' she cried.  
'I know. Don't worry.' Emily held her as she cried into her robes. 'We better get out of here before someone shows up.' They quickly left the corridor and headed back to the common room, where she tucked Ginny into bed.  
'You won't tell anyone, will you?' she asked.  
'No, I won't. But Ginny you have to promise me that you will be careful alright? That means stay away from the diary.' she warned her. Emily let out a long sigh. 'Good night.' she said as she left the room.

Shortly after she left Ginny and headed down to the ouch, everyone had returned from dinner. there were students everywhere talking about that night's activity. There were murmurs, whispers and loud conversations about how Potter did it. Angelina, Fred and George saw Emily sitting on the couch and came up to her.  
'Did you hear Em?' Angelina asked sitting down on the other side of the couch.  
'Hear what?' she asked.  
'About the message written with blood on the wall! It said "the Chamber of Secret's has been opened once more, enemies of the heir beware."'  
'That sounds creepy.' Emily said, not wanting them to know that she already knew about it.  
'Yeah, and a bunch of people thought it was Harry because he wasn't at dinner.' George said.  
'Well that doesn't justify that it was actually him. Lots of people weren't at dinner.' she said.  
'Yes but Potter was there when they found the message.' said Angelina. Just then, the head of Gryffindor came strolling into the room, looking around for someone.

'Ah Ms. Ryan there you are.' McGonagall said.  
'Good evening professor McGonagall, what is it?' she asked.  
'Professor Dumbledore would like to speak with you in his office straight away if you don't mind.' she said in a hurry. Emily knew exactly what this was going to be about. She looked around at her friends who had a strange look on her face. She ignored them, and got up, heading out the portrait hole and towards Dumbledore's office.

When she got there the door was already open. She could hear numerous voices inside all arguing. They were talking about the Chamber of Secrets. When she approached the open door, she could see professor Snape had noticed her coming. Emily stopped at the door, waiting to be invited in. McGonagall had walked past her into the office, and whispered something to the headmaster.  
'There you are Ms. Ryan, please don't be afraid to come in.' Dumbledore said after he noticed her standing there. She did what she was told and slowly came into the room. Professor Snape, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Lockhart, Sprout and Madame Pomfrey were all gathered inside.  
'Good evening sir.' she said quietly. Dumbledore came up to her.  
'My dear, there is no time, we need to know where the Chamber lies.' he said in a sort of a panic. She looked around the room at the other teachers.  
'I'm sorry sir, I cannot help you.' she said.  
'This is absurd. How are we going to keep the school in line when the chamber has been open!' one of the teachers cried. Dumbledore came closer.  
'I know this story has to be told in the order in which it was portrayed, but I'm afraid we will have no choice but to close the school if we don't find the chamber.' he said.  
'I can't I'm sorry.' she said. 'Sir, you told me yourself that no matter how severe the problem is, I cannot tell you the answer.' she reminded him.  
'I understand, but tell me one thing,' she was listening, 'will we be able to close it?'  
'Yes.' she answered. 'It will be closed, but it will take time; I'm sorry, I can't help you anymore than that.' Emily was dismissed back to her house. She lied in bed for hours, she couldn't sleep because of how worried she was for Ginny, Harry, Dumbledore and all the rest of the teachers.

* * *

It was the first Quidditch game of the season and Emily was waiting for the team to arrive. she was leaning against the wall of the entrance. When the team arrived, she ducked out of sight. She wanted to get Fred's attention before the game, to wish him good luck. The twins were standing in the back, fiddling with their bats and poking each other with them.  
'Fred!' she whispered loudly. 'Fred!' she said again. He looked around to find who was calling his name, when George poked him.  
'Oi, it's Emily.' he said to his twin, who was gesturing behind him. Fred turned around and smiled when he saw her. He looked up ahead, and made sure wood wasn't watching and ducked behind the wall where she was.  
'Emily shouldn't you be out in the stands?' he asked.  
'I will I will, but I wanted to wish you good luck.' she said. 'After all, it is the first  
t game of the season and I want you to be careful alright.'  
'I'm always careful!' He laughed. 'And besides, Slytherin will be so scared of otter that they won't even fly near him. We've practically won already!'  
'You're so full of yourself, and I already told you, it wasn't Harry. Just make sure you watch out.'  
'Weasley!' they heard Wood call. Fred gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.  
'I will don't worry.' he said and rejoined the team. They mounted their brooms and flew out onto the field. Emily stood there frozen with a smile on her face, and her hand raised to her cheek where he had just kissed it. A small gesture he had done left her smiling like an idiot.

* * *

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	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12:**

After all of the attacks and people getting petrified around the school, Lockhart so "happily" wanted to help the situation by creating the dueling club. He made her attend, he thought it would "help" her grow and become a better witch. She's told him on countless occasions that Lockhart was a fraud but he doesn't listen. She doesn't know what he's thinking. Sure, he's one of the greatest wizards of the generation, but it would be nice if he wasn't always so secretive. How was she supposed to get to know him if he won't let her. She only knew the bear minimum, like how he was gay, though she never brought that one up. She didn't know if it was true, or if it was a rumor started by someone.

At the dueling club Harry and Draco got to duel against each other which was a blast to watch, until Draco casted _Serpensortia._ It went downhill from there. Not _only _did Harry show the entire school that he could speak parseltongue, but now everyone thinks he's the heir of Slytherin. Everyone's been avoiding him lately, scared he might set a snake on them, or petrify them. Emily was more worried about Ginny. They were sitting at the Gryffindor table, the Weasley's didn't go home for Christmas, they were staying at the castle. She was sitting right next to Ginny, when no one was paying attention to them she whispered to her.  
'Ginny are you alright? You don't look so good.'  
'I've been busy with school work is all.' she said smiling at Emily, but she could spot a fake smile a mile away.

After dinner Emily went to go find Ginny. She ran out of the hall right after she was done eating. She found her in the corridor leading to moaning myrtle's bathroom.  
'Ginny!' she yelled. She girl began to walk faster. 'Ginny stop!' Ginny walked into the bathroom. When Emily walked into the bathroom all of the faucets were on and the bathroom started to flood. she found Ginny clutching the diary, sitting on the ground in the corner. 'Ginny that's enough.' she said. She walked over and tried to take the book from her.  
'No!' she cried. 'I-I can't let it go!'  
'Ginny, you have to let it go. It's not healthy.' she hauled it from her.  
'No! Don't you see? I can't let it go! If I do he'll kill everyone!' she cried into her robes. Emily held her.  
'No he won't, I won't let it happen Gin.' she said. 'You have t let it go. Trust me it's for the best alright?' Ginny wiped her eyes and looked up at Emily and nodded her head. she got up and threw the diary away, making it hit Myrtle. 'Not her! good god Ginny run!' she said hauling Ginny out of the bathroom and down the corridor.

'How does it feel?' Emily asked as they were walking down the hall in silence.  
'It feels weird, not holding it anymore.' she murmured.  
'Ginny whatever you do I want you to promise me you won't go looking for it again alright?' she asked. Ginny nodded her head.  
'Thank you Emily. I don't think I could have down that by myself.' she hugged Emily and skipped away. Emily stood there and stared at Ginny as she strolled down the hallway. Emily smiled to herself.  
'What's she so bloody happy about?' came a voice from behind her. She turned around and the twins were staring at her.  
'How much of that did you hear?' she asked.  
'I don't know, we just go here.' George said. Emily mentally prayed to herself that they _really _didn't know. they were both holding dozens of sweets from dinner.

'was our little Ginny getting into trouble?' Fred asked popping a pastry into his mouth.  
'No, she just needed some advice.' Emily said coolly. 'Do you guys want to head up to the common room? It's getting late and I've ran out of things to do tonight.'  
'We could head down to hog's head?' George suggested.  
'George we aren't allowed to go to Hogsmeade without McGonagall's permission.' she rolled her eyes.  
'Did you forget that we have access to the secrets passageways?' Fred asked.  
'No I didn't forget, how could I?' she yawned. 'You two go on ahead if you like.'  
'Why don't you come with us?' Fred asked.  
'Ya, Fred'll be bored out of his mind if _you're _not there.' George teased.  
'It's not that I don't _want _to go, it's that I can't. I'd never hear the end of it from Dumbledore.' she said.  
'Alright, good night.' he said.  
'Good night Fred. And George, good night George.' she smiled and headed up to the common room.

* * *

After Christmas ended and classes resumed, there was an attack on a dorm room in Gryffindor house. Someone had completely destroyed Harry and Ron's room.  
'I told you.' Emily said, after she sat Ginny down. She was pacing around the room. 'I TOLD you not to go looking for it again!' she raised her voice.  
'I'm sorry.' Ginny murmured.  
'No, SORRY means you won't or wouldn't have done it again. Ginny, where is the diary right now?' she asked.  
'I'm not going to give it to you.' she said.  
'I'm not asking for you to give it to me. I'm going to give it too Dumbledore because you _obviously _can't handle it.'  
'Please don't! I'll get expelled.'  
'Oh relax you won't get expelled.' she assured Ginny. 'At most you'll get a detention. They don't expel first years. Now where is it?' Ginny sat down on her bed in defeat.  
'It's in the girls bathroom, behind a toilet.' she said.  
'Alright. I'll be back in an hour. Try not to get into trouble while I'm gone.' When Emily left the room Ginny quickly got up and ran towards her trunk. She opened it and pulled out the diary. She opened it and quickly fell into a trance.

Emily went to the bathroom and looked around the toilets, there was no diary there.  
'What's she talking about?' she said to herself. She left the bathroom and headed down the corridor to return to the common room. Maybe she was looking in the wrong place? Her thoughts were interrupted by an announcement.  
_'All students are to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers to the second floor corridor immediately.'_ McGonagall said. Emily stopped in her tracks.  
'She lied to me!' she said to herself. 'She freaking lied to me!' she said louder. Emily rushed down the corridor and headed to the common room. When she got in there everyone was gathered around the common room. She ran past them all and rushed to Ginny's room. When she go there it was empty. Ginny's trunk was wide open and there was no sign of her.

'No.' she said walking towards her bed and looking around. 'No no no no no! This can't be happening no!'  
'Emily what's wrong?'Fred came rushing into the room. She turned around and looked at him. She couldn't hide this, not from him, her own brother.  
'Fred there's something I need to tell you.' she said.  
'Okay.'  
'You might want to sit down for this.' she said.  
'Is it really that bad?' he laughed. Upon seeing the worried look on her face his smile disappeared. 'What happened?' She took a deep breath.  
'Ginny, she um-' she stopped herself. 'She's been taken into the Chamber of Secrets.' Fred's face was unreadable. 'Fred?'  
'What?'  
'Please don't make me say it again.' she complained.  
'H-how do you know this?' he asked taking a seat on Ginny's bed.'  
'Dumbledore told me moments ago.' she lied. He put his hands over his face and fell back against the bed. 'Fred say something.'  
'Is she okay?' he said. 'I mean, well- I don't know. How could she have let this happen! Ginny's so smart!' he raised his voice.  
'She'll be alright.' she said. He sat up and looked at her, she could tell he was fighting off tears. 'Fr all we know she could be dead.'  
'No she isn't.' she said. 'Trust me.' she assured him. 'Ginny _is _smart. she'll be fine I bet.' he looked away from her. She wrapped her arms around him and he fell into her, they sat there in silence.

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	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13:**

It's been hours since Harry and Ron had gone down to the Chamber, in that time, Emily was at the hospital wing. She was waiting for Madame Pomfrey to cure Hermione. She was sitting at the end of the bed while she watched the nurse give her the potion. In a few moments the colour in Hermione's face sprang back to life. Her eyes opened wide and she took a deep breath.  
'Hermione!' Emily shouted as she ran up to hug her. Hermione wrapped her arms around her as well. Emily pulled out the hug. 'Are you alright? Are you hurt? How are you feeling?' she asked.  
'I'm fine!' she laughed.  
'Good.' she said and hugged her again.  
'Where's everyone else?' she asked.  
'Harry and Ron went down to the Chamber to get Ginny.' Emily said. Hermione was shocked.  
'Ginny? It was Ginny? But she's so smart. How could she have-'  
'She wasn't controlling herself, it's a long story.' she cut Hermione off. 'Come on, we should get back to the common room to wait for them to return.' She helped Hermione off of the bed and they both strode back up to the tower.

It didn't take long before Harry and Ron came back. Harry was covered in dirt and mold, and Ginny had black ink in her hair. Ron had dust from the bunch of rocks that fell onto Lockhart as he used _obliviate _on himself. After they all went to the hospital wing, and got cleaned up they were sent back to their houses. Everyone was gathered in the common room in silence waiting for their return. When they got back the room erupted with applause for what they had done.  
'Ginny thank god.' Fred said as he ran up to his little sister and hugged her. George took her out of his grasp and spun her up in the air.  
'You had us worried sick you little trouble maker!' George said. Emily watched as the Weasley's all talked amongst themselves. Mrs. Weasley is going to have one hell of a heart attack when she finds out what's happened, Emily thought. She laughed to herself as she watched them. Soon the crowd died down and Harry and Ron were called to Dumbledore's office. He was reinstated as headmaster now that the culprit has been caught, though Ginny was too young to be sent to Azkaban, and wasn't really responsible for the attacks, she was let off the hook. Ginny caught sight of Emily by the fire and made her way over to her and sat down across from her. Emily looked up from the fire and stared at the girl.  
'I'm sorry.' she started, 'I should have listened to you, I shouldn't have lied to you and make you go around the castle looking for the diary. I should have gotten rid of it the moment I found it.'  
'It's alright, like I said before, it wasn't your fault, and I don't blame you now.' Emily said. She looked at Ginny's stained hair and ran a finger through it. 'We should probably fix that before you head home tomorrow.' she crinkled her nose and tried to get her hands out of the sticky mess. Ginny laughed and ran her own fingers through her hair.  
'Maybe you could come and visit this summer, at the burrow.' she said as the idea hit her. Emily looked back at the fire.  
'I don't know if that's such a good idea...'  
'Oh come on, mum loves you and she's practically begged us to invite you over.' Emily laughed.  
'I don't know if I can, but I'm not saying no.' She stood up. 'Now we should probably head to dinner. It's the last one we'll be having for awhile.' With that the two of them headed down to the great hall.

They followed the crowd into the large room as everyone was being seated. Suddenly an arm reached out and pulled Emily aside.  
'Fred?' she said. she looked at Ginny. 'Go on ahead and save me a seat.' Ginny nodded. Fred pulled her towards the statue in the entrance hall. 'Fred what's this about?'  
'How did you really know Ginny was brought into the Chamber?' he asked her with a curious look on his face.  
'I already told you, Dumbledore told me.' she said.  
'Yes, but Dumbledore wasn't there at the time, he left Hogwarts.' he said. Emily looked down at her feet. She regretted ever saying that. 'How did you know she was taken?'  
'Does it really matter?'  
'It matters to me. As her brother it does actually.' At that moment she remembered watching the Weasley's talk in the common room as a family. She couldn't help but let her mind wander to Jeremy. 'Em? You there?'  
'What? sorry. Dumbledore told me before he left, he knew it was Ginny, but he had no proof.'  
'So he was accusing her?'  
'No, not exactly it wasn't like that. It was more of a gut feeling.' she said, not even understanding what she was saying herself, but kind of making stuff up as she went along.  
'Oh, alright.' Emily looked at him with disbelief.  
'What?'  
'I understand.' She looked at him with a blank expression.  
'Good. hungry?' she smiled.  
'Starving.' the two of them made their way back into the great hall for dinner.

The food was amazing, as it always was at the end of the year. Emily swore that they held onto the good stuff until the last day. Dumbledore rose and clanked the side of his cup, getting attention from the entire school.  
'In light of recent events, school treat, all exams have been cancelled.' he finally said. The whole school began to cheer. Never, have they ever had the exams cancelled. Hermione was upset of course, but as for the rest of the school, ecstatic. The doors at the end of the hall flung open to reveal the grounds keeper, Hagrid. The room fell silent as he walked in.  
'Sorry I'm late. The owl that delivered my release papers got all lost and confused. Some bloody bird called Errol.' he said. The entire Gryffindor table turned to Ron with an annoyed expression, all knowing that it was indeed _his _owl. He walked up to Harry, Ron and Hermione. 'I'd just like to say, that if it hadn't been for you three I would still be you-know-where so I'd just like to say, thanks.' he smiled. Harry rose and looked at him.  
'It wouldn't be Hogwarts without you Hagrid.' he said, making Hagrid begin to cry. Dumbledore began to clap, then teachers joined in, and a few other students. Soon the whole school was clapping for their grounds keeper, everyone except Draco, Crabbe and Goyle.

* * *

'Alright, mum would _kill_ us if you don't come over this summer.' George said as him, his twin, Ron, and Ginny were all walking down the corridor with their trunks. Emily didn't have hers, but she enjoyed the walk down to Hogsmeade station anyway. Emily chuckled to herself.  
'So I've heard.' she replied.  
'Honestly woman, you should come over, it's been four years and you _still_ haven't been over once.' he said.  
'George I'll see what I can do. I do really want to come over though, I want to see how the burrow actually looks like. I mean seriously, you know how many people would kill to be in my position right now?' she said.  
'What? The burrow isn't legendary Em.'' Fred assured her. 'It's a house kept together with practically tape.' Emily laughed.  
'If you say so. She watched as they were heading out with a group down to the station, they were securing their trunks and saying their goodbyes.  
'Really you should come by.' Fred said as he leaned against the same wall she was.  
'Why do you want me over so bad?' she raised an eyebrow.  
'It'd just be nice y'know. I could show you around the house, the farm, everything.' he said. Emily thought about how nice that would be. She imagined the smell, she always loved farms.  
'I'll come by, but only if your mum invites me. I don't want to intrude.' she said.  
'Is that what you're worried about?' she nodded. 'She loves you.'  
'She hardly even knows me.' she said.  
'And that's exactly why you should come over.'  
'Oi, Fred get over here we're going.' George called.  
'You're right.' she pushed herself off the wall, as did he. She gave him a hug and whispered, 'I'll see you soon.' and kissed his cheek.  
'Bye Em.' he said as he rejoined his brother. She watched them leave, until they were out of sight. She walked up the stairs to the moving staircases.  
'Why does he have to be so charming!' she said to herself as she hauled herself up to Gryffindor tower to collect her stuff. Soon to return to Dumbledore.

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	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14:**

Emily was in her temporary bedroom emptying out her trunk. She was putting her clothes away in her dresser and fixing it up, the way she had it the year before. Emily wasn't very accustomed to change. She liked her daily routine and the same old same old. She had just about finished unpacking when an owl showed up at her window. It flew right into the window, it must have been Errol. She quickly ran to the window and helped the poor thing. She pet it's wings and picked up the letter in its mouth. The letter had been from Mrs. Weasley. There was also a package attached to the bird as well. She opened it up and began to read.  
_Dear Emily,  
Oh it was so nice to see you in Diagon Alley last summer dear, I'm so glad you're doing well. Dumbledore is such a wonderful man for letting you stay in that amazing castle. I still remember the first time you met the lot of us at the train station almost five years ago (I can't believe it's been that long already!). Ginny keeps going on and on about how nice you were to her last year. I do thank you for helping her feel more at home there, starting school by yourself is always a hard thing to do. Fred and George keep nagging me to ask you to come over, honestly dear, I would love for you to stay with us for a week or two this summer, you could meet the rest of the family. I made fresh lemon squares for you, I do hope you like them. Have a great summer.  
Mrs. Weasley._

Emily laughed. She _told_ Fred she wouldn't come without an invite, and there was one, right in front of her. Emily put down the letter and opened the package. The smell of lemon filled the room and Emily couldn't help but take in a deep breath and smell them. She was a sucker for home made goods. _Curses! _She really did want to go, but she was nervous, and frankly she didn't know if Dumbledore would be okay with that. She picked up one of the lemon squares and put it into her mouth, it was _delicious_.  
'Would you like to try one Errol?' she said to the owl. 'go on.' the owl plucked its beak into the package and a lemon square was caught on it. Emily laughed and left the room.

She went into Dumbledore's office where he would hopefully be, and to her relief he was. She approached his desk, the sounds of numerous clocks and whispers from the different paintings filling the room.  
'Emily, how are things?' he asked when she approached. He didn't seem very busy at the moment.  
'Alright.'  
'And how are you settling in? Everything to your liking?'  
'Ya, everything is great, just like it was last summer.' she smiled. 'I was wondering.' she began, Dumbledore looked up at her.  
'Yes?'  
'Well, Mrs. Weasley sent me a letter asking if I could stay at the burrow for a week.' she said. He didn't say anything, so she assumed she should go on. 'I was wondering if I could go?' He seemed to take a minute in his head to decide.  
'Very well. It is summer after all. You may do what you wish.' he smiled.  
'Really?' he nodded. 'That's great. Oh my gosh this is awesome!' she said excited.  
'You should start packing. I'm assuming she will be expecting you in the morning.' he said.  
'Thank you.' she smiled. 'Thank you thank you thank you!' she ran back to her room. She looked around and realized that she should probably start packing again. She wrote a letter to Mrs. Weasley telling her that she was going to arrive in the morning, and stay for a week, under Dumbledore's permission of course. She went to sleep that night with the biggest smile on her face, though she rarely slept at all.

* * *

Emily brought her trunk down to the entrance hall. Dumbledore had arranged for Emily to go down to Hagrid's again, where she would get to the burrow with Floo powder. She said good bye to Dumbledore and headed down to Hagrid's hut.  
'Alright. On the count O' three, say: the burrow. Alright.' Hagrid said as she stepped into the fireplace and took a handful of Floo powder. 'One - two - three!'  
'The Burrow.' she stated clearly. Suddenly Emily and her things were plopped down onto a field of grass in the middle of nowhere. She got herself up and dusted off her shirt and jeans. She looked around. There was nothing but a little farm house and a familiar building. She smiled when she saw it. She grabbed her trunk and began to lug it into the direction of the house.

When she had reached the house, she walked past the farm house and stepped in a big, wet pile of mud. She put down her trunk and sat on it. She removed her shoes.  
'Great! This is excellent. Come to see Fred and I end up getting mud on my shoes.' she said angrily to herself.  
'Come to see _me_?' Emily dropped her shoe and turned her head around. She was looking directly at him.  
'Um.' was all she could say.  
'Mum saw you out here, asked me to help you bring your stuff in.' he said as he smiled at her. She still couldn't think of anything to say. 'I'm glad you came to see _me_. After all it _is _worth it isn't it.' he said jokingly.  
'I didn't just come to see _you_. I came to see _everyone_ else of course.' she shot back as she got up. She was holding her high-tops in her left hand by the laces. He was about four inches taller than her, but she didn't mind.  
'Of course.' he repeated. They stood there for a moment smiling at each other. Emily swore he was leaning in, but her thoughts were quickly stopped as she was tackle hugged.  
'Emily! I'm so glad you're here! We're going to have so much fun!' Ginny laughed.  
'Heck ya we are. I can't wait to see the place!' she said. Fred picked up her trunk and the three of them walked into the house.

It was everything she imagined and more. It was beautiful and wonderfully original. It was, without a doubt, the "Weasley" home, yet she felt at home herself the moment she walked through the kitchen door into the living room. She even saw the clock that showed where each family member was at all times.  
'Wow.' Emily said breathlessly.  
'It's not much, but it's home.' Fred said putting down the trunk. She smiled at him.  
'I think it's brilliant.' she said, laughing to herself.  
'That's what Harry said when he stayed with us last summer.' George said emerging from the stairs.  
'George! It's nice to see you!' she said giving him a welcoming hug. Mrs. Weasley quickly came into the room.  
'I thought I heard new voices!' she said as she pulled Emily into a hug.  
'Mrs. Weasley it's great to see you.' she smiled. 'And thank you for sending those lemon squares, they were delicious.'  
'That's where they went!' George pointed his finger at his mom. 'You said a garden gnome stole them!'  
'Oh shush. You two help her settle in and we'll have some breakfast.' Mrs. Weasley ordered. Emily, Fred and George all headed up the stairs.

They went into Ginny's room and placed her trunk on the second bed.  
'So this is where you'll be staying.' Fred said as they looked around the room. There was a large amount of pink on the walls. She hated that colour. but she didn't mind it either. It wasn't like she would be in there 24/7.  
'It's nice.' she said.  
'It's bloody pink!' George complained. 'Honestly Fred, I think we should redecorate it for her. Don't you think?'  
'No way! You are NOT messing with your poor little sister's room. That's just plain evil.' she laughed.  
'Relax blondey! It was a joke.' George said putting his hands up in defeat. He left the room, leaving Fred and Emily alone.  
'So.' he said breaking the silence. 'Need any help unpacking?' he asked.  
'Naw I got it. Thanks.' she said.  
'You know, I didn't get my welcome hug.' he complained.  
'Aw, that's not fair.' she laughed. She walked up to him and put her arms around him. Fred held her close to him and they stayed like that for a moment before she pulled back. 'This place is amazing.' she said walking towards the window. Ginny had an amazing view of the yard from up there. She could see everything.  
'I'll show you around later if you want.' he said.  
'That would be awesome.'  
'Alright, well I'll let you unpack. Join us downstairs for breakfast when you're done.' he said leaving and closing the door behind him.

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	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15:**

Emily was leaning against the house on a bright, sunny afternoon. She was drinking a glass of lemonade and watching Mr. Weasley, Percy, the twins and Ron working on the field. Emily loved not having to work too, though a part of her wanted to get her hands in the mud and have some real fun. She looked over to where Ginny was sitting at the picnic table just a few yards away from her. Ginny was colouring in her colouring book. Emily put down her glass and walked over to her.  
'Hey Ginny, whatcha working on?'  
'I'm just colouring. There really isn't anything I'm allowed to do.' she said looking over at the boys.  
'What? You wish you were on the field?' Emily asked.  
'Yeah, I love to do stuff like that. Mum says I'm too young to do that kind of stuff. She said she'll teach me how to work in the kitchen.'  
'Aw, that's not fun.' Emily complained.  
'I know, but at least I'll be doing something.' she said going back to her colouring.' Emily stared at her trying to think something to do. She could tell Ginny was bored. In fact, she was quite bored herself. Fred promised her a tour of the house, but he hasn't yet.  
'Hey Gin?' she turned to look at Emily. ' Is there a lake around here or something? Somewhere we can hang out for the day? Maybe go swimming?' Ginny's eyes lit up as if she had gotten the best idea ever.  
'Yes! I can't believe I didn't think about it before! There's a lake just a few minutes away from here, just past the field and barn.' she said.  
'Then why are we sitting out here in the burning sun instead of swimming?' Emily asked.  
'Let's go!' Ginny put down her crayons and ran into the house.

Emily put on her bathing suit and headed down stairs. Mrs. Weasley came into the house from the garden, holding a big basket of food.  
'Here let me help.' Emily said taking it from her.  
'Oh thank you dear, there's fine.' she said motioning to the long, wooden table. Emily placed the food on the table and turned around to see Ginny running down the stairs in her swimsuit.  
'Ready?' she said asking Ginny.  
'Ready for what?' Mrs. Weasley asked turning around.  
'Oh mummy, can we go down to the lake?' she asked her mom.  
'I don't know.'  
'Please? We're really bored and Emily is responsible isn't she?' Emily laughed, this reminded her of her own family.  
'Oh alright, be home at dusk.' she said.  
'Thank you!' she said and hugged her mom. Emily and Ginny headed out of the house and walked down the dirt road. They past the field where the boys were working.  
'Oi! Where do you think you're going?' they heard George yell.  
'We're heading down to the lake.' Ginny said smiling.  
'Ginny don't gloat, it's not lady like' Mr. Weasley said.  
'Well when you guys finish, you should join us.' Emily said, as she looked at Fred and went on her way.

When they got to the lake, Emily was amazed. It looked amazing. There was tall grass surrounding a large lake, Dark blue lake. The sun was shining onto the water, making it look like thin glass. There was an old dock on the other side that looks like it's been jumped off a few times. Miscellaneous, lanky trees were surrounding the lace, giving the lake a cool feeling, it wasn't hot, but was cool all around. The sound of frogs could be heard in the distance.  
'Oh my god.' she said.  
'What?' Ginny asked putting her towel down beside a close tree.  
'It's official. This is my new favorite place in the world.' she said following her, and doing the same. She ran onto the dock and jumped into the lake. It was so nice. She swam up to the surface and took a deep breath. Ginny jumped in after her, splashing her in the face.

They spent the remainder of the day at the lake. They floated in the water enjoying the summer day. It was getting dark so they returned to the house for dinner. They came in and saw Mrs. Weasley was almost ready to serve dinner so the two of them helped set the table. The boys came back into the house from working all day.  
'What's that?' Asked George.  
'Smells delicious.' Fred said.  
'And it's going to taste even better. C'mon you lot, time for supper.' the whole family, and Emily, sat down at the table and dug in. Mrs. Weasley made mashed potatoes and chicken with carrots and for dessert, they had chocolate cake, and yes, it _was_ amazing.

After dinner Emily went up to her room to read. Ginny was out in the garden with Mrs. Weasley when there came a knock on the door. Emily got up off of her bed and went to open it.  
'Hey.' she smiled.  
'Hey.' Fred said. Emily opened the door wider to let him in. 'Um, sorry I haven't really been all entertaining for the past couple of days. My dad's just got me and George doing more chores than humanly possible. He thinks that now that it's summer, we have nothing to amuse ourselves with.' he said.  
'It's alright. I've been spending loads of time with Ginny.' she said. Truth was, she rather hang out with the guys.  
'I know.' he said. 'Which is why I was wondering, well if you wanted to, we could, um.' he stopped himself.  
'We could what?' she asked.  
'I don't know, we could do something tomorrow? My dad's going back to work.'  
'So you have chores?' she asked.  
'Ya, but I don't have to-'  
'Can I help?' she asked interrupting him.  
'What? Why on earth would you want to help? Chores are no fun.' he said.  
'Ya but the last time I actually had to do chores, was almost two years...now that I think about it...' she said.  
'Well if you're sure.' she nodded. 'I won't go easy on you, you'll have to work.' she nodded again. 'Alright.'  
'Yes! Thank you!' she hugged him.

* * *

The next Emily headed out with Fred and George in the early morning. They headed to the barn.  
'alright, so what are we doing first? Collecting eggs?' she asked. The two of them laughed.  
'We don't do that, mum does.' George said.  
'Then what?' George dropped a shovel in front of her.  
'We clean up the manure.' he said.  
'Fun...' she said as she picked it up. Shovelling manure wasn't as "fun" as she was hoping it would be. Neither was the weed picking in the field. She kept falling over. Turns out, the weeds in the wizarding world are much larger, and apparently chase after you if you don't treat them right. Of course, the twins never told _her_ that. "just grab onto the routs and pull" they said. She was hoping that the Gnome catching would be easier, more fun.  
'Alright, now what you have to do is, Grab onto their little hat, after you catch them of course, and toss them over the hedge.' Fred said, showing her how it was done.  
'Seems easy enough.' she said without confidence. They all went about to catch their gnomes. They got them all, or at least the ones that weren't expert hiders.

'I think - we got - them all.' Fred said panting.  
'I'll - go put - these away.' George said as he picked up the shovels and headed towards the shed. Emily caught her breath and looked around the area. Her eyes narrowed into the garden where she _swore _she saw a little pointy hat.  
'There! There's one more!' she shouted, pointing in the direction of the hat. Fred spotted it and they both ran after the little thing. They jumped onto it at the same time, after it ran off. Emily tripped over Fred's leg and pulled him down, and they both went tumbling onto the ground with him landing on top.  
'Fancy meeting you here.' he smiled. Emily laughed.  
'what are you doing in town?'  
'Oh you know, just rollin' around' he smiled. They heard a cough and looked in the direction of it. George stood there with an amused expression on his face. Fred got off of her and stood up, pulling her up with him. They stood side by side staring at George.  
'Mum said suppers ready.' he said. Emily nodded and walked off. George smirked and began walking off. Fred ran after him.  
'Nothing happened.' he stated walking beside his brother.  
'Course not.'  
'I just fell.'  
'That's believable.' George smirked.  
'I did. I swear.'  
'Fred how many times are we going to go through this?'  
'through what?' George leaned into his brother and made sure no one was listening.  
'If you like Em so much, why don't you ask her out?'  
'Why would I do that? I don't even know if she likes me herself.' he said.  
'Ya that wasn't obvious at all.' George said sarcastically. Fred shoved his brother.  
'You're such a git, you know that.'  
'Whatever, I was just saying. Come on, I'm hungry.' George said as they ran into the house.

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	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16:**

Emily was nearing the end of her visit at the Weasley home. She didn't know how she was going to spend the rest of her summer without the beautiful, sunny lake, the amazing home cooked dinners from Mrs. Weasley, or anything else for that matter. Emily's trunk was at the bottom of the stairs, all packed and ready to go.  
'I'm really going to miss you Emily.' Ginny said as she hugged Emily good bye.  
'I'm going to miss you too. I'll see you at school.' she said.  
'It was so nice to have you here dear. Don't be afraid to stop by every once and awhile.' Mrs. Weasley hugged Her as well and stepped aside. Emily was hugged again by Ginny.  
'Step back girl and save some Emily for the rest of us.' Ron said. Emily laughed.  
'Oh come here Ron.' Emily pulled him into a hug. Ron hugged her back of course, but she couldn't help think this was awkward for Him. He was always quiet around girls.  
'Bye Em, see you at school.' Percy shook her hand and went upstairs. Emily walked over to the twins.  
'Try not to get into too much trouble while I'm gone? And George, I hope you leave your poor little sister alone.' she said sternly.  
'it's like you don't know me at all. I would never, in a million years, do something like that.' he said as if he was offended. Emily rolled her eyes and hugged them both.  
'Alright we'll, I'm off. see you in about two months then.' she said. Just then, Mr. Weasley came into the house.

'Emily, are you ready to go?' He asked. She nodded and left the house. Mr. Weasley was going apperate her to Hogwarts. They waited until they got far enough away from the house and he held out his hand. Emily took hold of his hand and grabbed her trunk, as they disappeared in a blink of an eye. Emily landed at Hogsmeade station. Mr. Weasley was nowhere in sight, so she just headed up to the castle where Dumbledore would be expecting her arrival.

She lugged her trunk up to Hogwarts. She was standing in the entrance hall where she was standing a week ago. She looked around, but no one was around.  
'Hello?' she called, hearing her echo bounce off of the tall, stone walls. She walked up to the stairs and headed to her room.  
'Lovely. Come back and there is absolutely no one here.' she said to herself. When she got into Dumbledore's office, she saw him sitting at his desk. 'Well I'm glad to see _someone_ is still here.' she said.  
'Oh Emily, welcome back. I trust your visit went well?' he said.  
'Ya, it was great. Loads of fun actually.' she said.  
'Professor Snape has done the honor of sending you books to your room, feel free to review them before term starts.' he said.  
'Ah, how nice of him to do such a wonderful gesture.' she said sarcastically. Dumbledore gave her a look. 'I know, I know. I'll be in my room "reviewing."' she said walking to her room.

* * *

She was in her room listening to the radio and looking through _witch weekly_, instead of reviewing her books when it happened. The music had stopped and was interrupted. She heard static, then a voice.  
_'Good evening ladies and gentlemen.'_ Came the voice, a reporter on the radio. _'We interrupt this program to bring you important news. Notorious masked murderer, Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban prison. The ministry isn't sending out any further word about the event, only to caution the public. If you see said fugitive, please alert the Ministry of Magic immediately.' _Term was starting in less than a week and Sirius has already broken out, and there's no doubt that Harry hasn't ran away from the Dursley's right about now. There came a knock on the door.  
'Come in.' she said enthusiastically. Snape came in. 'What do you want?'  
'The headmaster wishes to see you.' he said in his regular, dull toned voice.  
'So why didn't he come get me himself?'  
'Because Dumbledore is a very busy man and doesn't have time to fetch a young girl from her room.' he said. Emily glared at him, got up, and walked down to Dumbledore.

'You wanted to see me?' she asked when she got there.  
'Yes, you won't be travelling to Diagon Alley this year, I've already arranged for Professor McGonagall to collect your supplies.' he said feeding Fawkes.  
'What? Why?' she asked surprised.  
'I don't know if you've heard, but a prisoner has-'  
'Escaped from Azkaban prison and is crazy, and on the loose.' she finished for him. He turned to her.  
'Is something wrong?' he asked.  
'No nothing's wrong- well I guess there are a few messed up things in this world that I thought wouldn't be here, but besides that everything is fine I guess.' she complained. She slumped onto Dumbledore's chair. 'It's just; I don't want to be doing the _same _thing_every_ year where I have to help you, or anyone else, keep this story going. I just miss my family. I miss everything from before this; whatever _this _is. Sir it's been two years. And being at the Weasley's this summer actually made me realize how much I actually miss them. Sometimes I really do feel like an orphan.' she whispered the last part.  
'You wished this never happened?' she nodded. Dumbledore let out a long, exasperated sigh. 'I'm sorry dear, but for now we'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out.' He looked at her. 'I called you in here because I wanted to tell you about the new defence against the dark arts teacher his name is-'  
'Oh! Let me guess this one!' she said sarcastically. She put her hands on her forehead. 'Hm, ah yes. I'm sensing the name, is it; Remus Lupin?'  
'I hate it when you do that, you know.' With that, he walked out of the room, leaving Emily with her thoughts.

* * *

As soon as they walked in the entrance hall, Emily ran up and hugged her friends, the whole lot of them.  
'Hermione, Ginny, it's so nice to see you two!' she said.  
'Have a good summer?' Hermione asked.  
'Oh ya, it was great, being here in the castle.' she said. She hugged Ron, Neville, Fred, George, and then Harry. 'Are you alright? I heard about the attack on the train. Thank goodness Professor Lupin was there.' she said.  
'Have you heard already? What's with wizards, news travels fast.' he said looking around.  
'Don't worry about it, are you alright?'  
'Yeah, never better.' he said and they hugged again.  
'Good, let's go eat.' she said, and they all went into the hall. 'It's been depressing here for the last few weeks. Dumbledore's got the Dementors here since late August, and it's colder than it should be.' she said taking a seat between the twins, speaking to the group. 'Dumbledore thinks that with them around I'll be safe.'  
'Em, you can take care of yourself can't you?' George asked. 'You're a woman.' he laughed. She punched him in the shoulder as he was taking a drink of pumpkin juice, spilling it on his robes. 'Ha ha, very funny.'  
'ha ha, I know.' she mocked. 'and for your information, that's exactly what I told him, but did he listen?'  
'Obviously not.' he said taking another drink of his pumpkin juice.

Dumbledore rose, and began to talk.  
'Welcome to yet another year at Hogwarts.' he shouted, as the room fell silent. 'I'd like to say a few words before we all eat. First I'm pleased to welcome Professor R.J. Lupin, who will be the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher this year.' everyone clapped.  
'That's how he knew to give you the chocolate Harry.' Hermione said.  
'Potter!' came a voice. They directed their attention to the Slytherin table. 'Is it true you fainted? Like you _actually _fainted?' he asked laughing. Emily gave him a look. He's been scared of her ever since she slapped him last year.  
'Secondly, I'm delighted to announce that the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be none other than our own, Rubius Hagrid.' They all clapped again. 'Finally, as a request of the Ministry of magic Hogwarts, until further notice, will lay host to the Dementors of Azkaban until such a time Sirius Black has been captured. the Dementors will be stationed at every entrance of the school. Now a word of caution; Dementors are viscous creatures. They will take the soul of anyone who gets in their way. Therefore I warn each and everyone one of you not to give them a reason to. It is not in the nature of a Dementor to be forgiving.' he said looking directly at Harry.  
'But you know, happiness can be found in even the darkest of times; if one only remembers to turn on the light.'

After the feat, they were all excused to their dormitories. Emily headed up to her room that she shared with Angelina, Katie and Alicia.  
'Alright, alright relax!' Emily laughed as they all tumbled into their room. They got ready for bed and got into their pajamas.  
'How can we relax?' Alicia said excitedly.  
'For one, I don't even know why you're all so excites to start school again. It's not like anything is really different this year.' she said falling onto her bed. Angelina threw a pillow at her.  
'You git! That's not why we're excited. A little birdy told me that you went to the burrow this summer.' she said smirking.  
'And?' she asked.  
'_And _we want to know what happened!' Katie laughed.  
'Between you and Fred.' Alicia finished for her. Emily sat up and hugged the pillow.  
'Nothing _happened_ really. We just- well we- we didn't' really have _that _much time to spend with each other.' she said.  
'That's not what George told me.' Angelina sang.  
'Oh so George is your little birdy then?' Emily laughed.  
'He told me that he found you Fred on top of you when he came back from putting the shovels back in the shed.' The girls all laughed.  
'Oh my god! Okay, it wasn't like that. I mean sure, if you came in when George did it would look pretty bad, but we were just catching gnomes! And there was this _one_ that was fast and we tripped over each other and-' she stopped herself. 'Ya it was pretty bad.' she blushed.  
'So do you even like him?' Angelina asked. Emily sighed.  
'I don't know. I mean I could but, if we don't really get to spend any time together, there really isn't anything there is there?'

* * *

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	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17:**

Emily and Hermione were sitting on one side of the table, and Harry and Ron on the other. The two girls were talking about Hogsmeade weekend and how much fun it was going to be. Emily was telling Hermione all about Zonkos when she noticed Ron was a little distracted by something in the distance.  
'Ron?' she asked.  
'What?' he said quickly as he turned back to the group.  
'What are you looking at?' He turned back and Emily could see he was staring at the Slytherin table.  
'Listen to him, he's really laying it on thick isn't he?' he said.  
'Well it's Draco, what'd you expect. And besides we all know that's not what really happened.' Emily said as she turned back to Hermione.  
'Ya well at least Hagrid didn't get fired.' Harry added in.  
'But Draco's father's furious.' Hermione said.  
'to hell with that man. He's a coward.' Emily said.  
'Emily! You can't just go around saying things like that, even if they are true...' Hermione whispered.

'He's been sighted! He's been sighted!' Seamus shouted, running into the hall with a paper in his hands.  
'Who?' Emily asked.  
'Sirius Black, that's who!' he said as he put the paper down and a large group formed around him.  
'Duff Town? That's not far from here.' Hermione said as she read it.  
'You don't think he'll come to Hogwarts, do you?' Neville said.  
'Of course not, Black wouldn't be stupid enough to come to a school like this.' Emily said 'With Dementors at every entrance.'  
'Dementors? He's already slipped past them once, who's to say that he won't do it again?' Seamus said.  
'He's right, Black could be anywhere.' Ron said.

* * *

It was Hogsmeade weekend and Emily was sitting in the common room alone, reading on the couch. One of the perks of living at the castle was that Dumbledore granted her permission t visit Hogsmeade whenever she felt like it. She heard the sound of the portrait hole open and she looked up from her book just in time to see a very depressed looking Harry walk through. He stopped when he saw her.  
'Oh sorry, I didn't think anyone was still here?' he asked. Emily closed her book.  
'I didn't feel like going on the trip. Nothing really to do. I got Fred and George to pick me up some sweets on the way back though.' she said.  
'Oh.' he said.  
'Is everything alright? I couldn't help but see how depressed you looked when you walked in just now.' she said.  
'Ya I'm fine, never better.' he said looking at the ground. Emily took a moment and thought for a second.  
'You know, I think you should go look for Professor Lupin. I remember him wanting to talk to you earlier, maybe he still does.' she suggested.  
'alright thanks.' he said as he turned away.  
'And Harry,' he stopped, 'don't worry about Hogsmeade, I'm sure you'll be able to go next year.' she said. He gave her a cricked smile and left the room without another word.

Emily ended up dozing off while reading her book. It began to rain heavily and thunder could be heard outside. The hard, almost frozen rain drops beat against the window. The only light in the room was coming from the fire, which was so dim it would burn out at any moment. Her book was laying on her chest as she turned her head toward the fire, still asleep. Emily was woken up instantly at the sound of footsteps coming down from the stairs. She stood up and her book hit the ground. She could see the shadow of someone coming down the stairs.  
'Fred, is that you.' she said as she saw the shadow walk down the stairs. 'Are you back already? I hope you remembered to get me my sweets.' she said crossing her arms and raising her eyebrow. They made it down the stairs and, to her surprise, it wasn't Fred, nor George, nor Harry. But it was Sirius. Emily instantly uncrossed her arms and stood up straight as thunder rolled through the air. His faded prison clothes were ripped and scratched all over, easily revealing the tattoo on his chest. 'You.' she said. 'What do you want?'  
'I don't know how I managed not to see you upon my arrival, but since you've seen me I have no choice but to-' he paused as he slowly walked up to her.  
'Wait!' she shouted quickly.  
'And why should I?'  
'Because I know you're innocent.' she said. He still continued to walk up to her. She put her hand behind her back, reaching for her wand just in case. 'And I know you want Harry to believe that as well.' He stopped. His expression changed completely.  
'What do you know about Harry?' he asked.  
'I know he's your godson, and I know he _will_ believe that you're innocent.' she said.  
'You're lying!' he said.  
'No, I'm not. Sirius there's no doubt that people have figured out you're in the castle, so I suggest you leave as fast as you can.' she said giving him a warning. He didn't move. 'Go to the shrieking Shack, wait for Harry there. He'll come eventually.' she said.  
'How can I trust you?' he said.  
'Well you can't I suppose. But what other choice do you have? You're a fugitive and every single Dementor at this castle is searching for you. I'm sure they'll find you eventually. _but_, if you listen to me and hide, I can guarantee your safety.'  
'Trust what? A fourth year?' he laughed.  
'I'm a fifth year, for your information.' she said annoyed.

Sirius chose to trust Emily, even without knowing who she was. He managed to escape the castle without anyone finding him. Emily left through the portrait hole to see everyone gathered around a small painting of a Hippo, on another set of stairs.  
'What are you all doing over there?' she asked. Everyone turned to face her.  
'Em!' Angelina called. She made her way over to her and hugged her. 'Thank god you're alright!' she said.  
'Of course I'm alright, I just had a nap.' she said.  
'Didn't you hear? Sirius Black snuck into the castle, into the common room.' Angelina said.  
'Well I'm just lucky I wasn't found then huh?' she said catching Dumbledore's eye. Oh yeah, he knew what happened.

* * *

The weather didn't change very much the next day. It was still raining more than ever, but did that stop anyone form going to the Quidditch game? Of course not! No matter what the weather was like, everyone, students and staff, wouldn't miss a game. Emily was walking down with Fred, George, Angelina, Katie, Ron, Harry and Hermione to the Quidditch pitch.  
'Good luck today you guys, I know you'll do great.' Emily said.  
'Ya, no doubt we'll lose with Harry and his nimbus.' George said as he walked beside Angelina.  
'Just be careful Harry, remember what happened _last_ year? You ended up in the hospital wing for a week!' she said. Harry laughed.  
'Nothing I can't handle.' he said. They got to the pitch and Ron, Emily and Hermione said their goodbyes and went up to the stand to watch. It was hard to see anything through that weather. every time you tried to look up, the rain would fall onto your face.  
'What's that?' Hermione asked. pointing up to the sky.  
'Merlin's beard! That's Harry!' Ron shouted. Harry was falling straight out of the sky, with no sign of his broom with him.  
'He's going to crash!' Hermione said. Everyone, including the players on the field stared up at Harry as he fell. Thanks to Dumbledore, Harry landed safely, but was passed out.

He was rushed to the hospital wing as soon as he hit the ground. Everyone was gathered around him.  
'He looks a bit peaky.' Ron said. 'Doesn't he?'  
'Peaky?' George said.  
'What'd you expect?' Fred said.  
'He fell over a hundred feet!' George finished.  
'C'mon Ron, lets walk you off the Astronomy tower-  
'And see what you'd look like.'  
'Probably better than he usually does.' Harry said as he woke up and sat up.  
'How are you feeling?' Hermione asked.  
'Oh brilliant.' Harry said sarcastically.  
'You gave us quite a scare mate.' Fred said.  
'What happened?' he asked.  
'No one blames you Harry. The Dementors aren't supposed to come into school grounds. Dumbledore sent them off after he saved you.' Emily said.  
'there's one more thing.' Ron said showing Harry his broom. 'This kind of flew into the whomping willow.' Emily could see Harry was disappointed in his broom, but he'll get over it.

Emily waited until after curfew that night to head down to the kitchen. she could really use a midnight snack to get over the frustrating events she's been through that week. She tickled the pear and entered. When she got in she saw two cupcakes on one of the tables. They both were on small little plates. There was a cup of tea in front of each, that looks like it had just been poured. She assumed it was the elves. But then someone stood up from under the counter.  
'Hello.' Fred smiled. She slowly walked over to the counter with her eyebrow raised.  
'Hello.' she mimicked. 'What's this for? Expecting anyone?' she asked. she knew she sounded interested in what he was doing, but she didn't care. Fred laughed at her. He was holding a bowl of sugar.  
'Actually yes, I am.' he said as he walked past her and put the sugar down. 'I kind of assumed you'd come down here.' he said. Emily smiled to herself.  
'So what you're saying is that you set this up for me?' she asked.  
'Absolutely. now sit down before your tea gets cold.' he said. Emily laughed and took a seat.

'So.' he said breaking the silence between them. Emily was perfectly fine with it, but Fred seemed off.  
'What?' she asked, looking up at him.  
'How was your summer?'  
'Apart from visiting your family?' he nodded. 'Relatively boring.'  
'Why? Ran out of fun?'  
'You could say that. Dumbledore's made me take extra classes with Snape.' she complained.  
'Wow, that must have been fun.' he laughed.  
'It was alright I guess.' she said looking down at her cupcake wrapper.  
'Is there something bothering you?' he asked.  
'What o you mean?' she asked.  
'Well, it's just, ever since third year you seem different.' he said.  
'Different? What like bad different or good different?'  
'I dunno yet. I guess that all depends on the future.' he said.  
'I guess I'm just confused tight now.'  
'How? What could you possibly be confused about?' he asked.  
'Well ever since I began to stay here instead of the orphanage, I just feel like I'm trapped like this forever.'  
'So you don' want to stay at the castle?' he asked.  
'The castle is fine! It's me that doesn't work! I'm broken.'  
'Em where is all of this coming from?' he asked. She looked up at him. 'You're not broken, alright. You're just scared for what will happen, and believe me you aren't alone.' he said. 'You'll be just fine.'  
'Really? How do you know that?' she asked.  
'Because you're amazing. And I'm not just saying that.' she scoffed. 'Really, you're smart, funny, beautiful, clever, cunning, and one of the toughest girls I know.' he said. Emily leaned across the table and captured Fred in a kiss. She felt uneasy about it at first, but her thoughts quickly disappeared when, to her delight, he kissed her back.

* * *

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	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18:**

_'Really, you're smart, funny, beautiful, clever, cunning, and one of the toughest girls I know.' he said. Emily leaned across the table and captured Fred in a kiss. She felt uneasy about it at first, but her thoughts quickly disappeared when, to her delight, he kissed her back..._

Unfortunately, Emily's thoughts kicked in about another seven seconds later when she realized what she was doing. She quickly pulled back. Emily and Fred had the exact same expression on their face, they looked as if they were caught doing something they weren't supposed to, and they were. They didn't say anything for about a half a minute, just looked at each other trying to process what happened.

'I' she began, 'I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me.' she whispered looking back down at her plate.  
'What?' he asked.  
'The kiss, I shouldn't have'  
'Are you apologizing?' Emily looked back at him and nodded. 'Why?'  
'Well I was out of line.' she said.  
'Oh Merlin Em, I didn't really deny you did I?' he said with an obvious expression on his face. Emily stood up and headed for the door. Fred stood up and followed her. 'Em just listen alright.' he said grabbing her arm and stopping her. Emily turned back and looked at him. 'I need to tell you this.'  
'I don't think this is a good idea.' she said.  
'I like you.' he said. Emily swallowed the lump in her throat. 'I have since I saw you first year.' First year? she didn't even _remember _first year. Still, looking at him, she couldn't find any hint of a bluff.  
'Fred I' she swallowed again and slowly brought her arm away from him. 'I can't.' was all she said, and left the kitchen, leaving a very confused and depressed Fred standing there.

* * *

For the next few weeks, Emily tried to avoid Fred, or at least avoid being alone with him. she didn't go down to the kitchen at night, she didn't wait around after class to chat with the twins like she usually did, and instead of hanging out with them over the weekend, she ended up spending it with Harry, Ron, Hermione or Angelina, or just locked herself away in her dorm room all day. She regretted leaving Fred there, without an explanation of how she couldn't tell him the things he said to her. Why was being who she was so hard! She was with Harry when he found out Sirius was his god father, and the four of them headed down to Hagrid's hut to ask him how the hearing went.  
'How did the hearing go Hagrid?' Hermione asked as she joined Emily on a rock near the lake. He threw a rock into the water, and they all watched as it skipped along the top of the water.  
'Well first off, the committee members took turns explaining why we were there.' he said in a mocking tone. 'Then I got up and told me piece about how Buckbeak was a good Hippogriff, I always clean his feathers. Ad then,' he sighed, 'Lucius Malfoy got up "Well you can imagine" he said "Buckbeak was a deadly and dangerous creature who would kill ya as soon as he looked at you."'  
'And then?' Emily asked.  
'And then he asked for the worst.' Hagrid said.  
'They're not sacking you?' Ron asked.  
'No, I'm not sacked,' he whispered. 'Buckbeak's been sentenced to death!' he said throwing a rock into the water. Everyone as quiet.  
'Oh Hagrid, I'm so sorry.' Emily said.

Emily was in the library with Hermione, studying for end of the year exams, which they were more than likely to have _this _year. She mostly watched Hermione as she was reading her books, and writing down notes.  
'Is something bothering you?' Hermione asked without looking up from her book.  
'Huh? What? No.' Emily said crossing her arms. Hermione looked up at her, knowing she was lying. 'Nothing's wrong.'  
'Then why don't you go see what Fred and George are doing then, it's probably way more fun then what I'm doing here.' she said.  
'No, I'm good.'  
'Why haven't I seen you with them? Are you fighting with them?' she asked.  
'No! I just don't want to talk about it alright.' Emily said.  
'I'm not letting this go.' Hermione said.  
'Fine.' Emily came closer to Hermione. 'Can you keep a secret?' Hermione nodded, 'well a few months ago, before winter break and such, Fred and I, we were in the kitchen late one night and-'  
'Oh my god!' Hermione practically yelled. Emily slammed her hand against her mouth.  
'SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!' she said in a hushed whisper and removed her hand.  
'Emily don't tell me you-'  
'Oh my goodness, no! We didn't do anything like that gosh.'  
'Then what happened?' Emily leaned in again.  
'We kissed.' she said simply.  
'What? Is that why you're upset?' Hermione asked, Emily nodded. 'Why? We all know that you like each other.' she said continuing reading her book.  
'It's not that simple 'mione.' she said. 'He told me he liked me, and I didn't say anything back, I left him standing there.' she said.  
'Why?'  
'I don't know. I guess I was just, scared?'  
'I'm sorry Emily.' Hermione said. 'Wait, so you think avoiding him is going to do...?'  
'Well it's giving me time to think.' Emily said.  
'I see.' Hermione went back to reading her book.  
'Remember, don't tell _anyone._' Emily said, getting up, and heading to dinner.

* * *

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	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19:**

The year was almost over and Emily still felt more alone than ever, she wished that she could go talk to Fred to cheer herself up, but he was the person she was trying to avoid. She was up in the astronomy tower, leaning on the railing and watching the sun set its self when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned her head and saw George approach her.  
'What are you doing here?' she asked as he rested against the railing as well and crossed his arms.  
'Just making sure you're still alive. It seems like its been months since we talked last.' he said.  
'Ya well I don't really feel very up to "talking" at the moment.' she said fiddling with her hands.  
'I know.' he said.  
'Then why did you come up here to talk to me?'  
'No, I mean I _know_.' he said again. Emily let out a long sigh.  
'Ya I figured as much, no way Fred could keep something like that from his twin brother.'  
'Why are you so upset about it?' he asked. Emily looked at him with her eyebrow raised. 'Oh c'mon, you can trust me, I won't tell him.' he said.  
'Well, I'm not upset about it per say. I was just confused and then when I kissed him, I don't know, it just made everything seem different.'  
'Good different? Bad different?'  
'I don't know different.' she said. 'I just don't know how to talk to him about it.'  
'Just give it some time Em, he'll come around. And I'm sure you will too.' he whispered the last part as he walked off.  
'I heard that!' she shouted back at him.  
'You were supposed too!' Emily smiled. At least she could still talk to George.

Emily was using a floating charm to bring a few of her stuff back into Dumbledore's office, so she didn't have to carry it herself. She was quickly walking up the stairs and when she got to his office, Emily saw Professor Lupin and Dumbledore talking.  
'Oh I'm sorry, I'll come back later.' she said.  
'Oh Emily, just the one I wanted to see.' Dumbledore said. Emily quietly came into the room, her stuff laying themselves on the nearby table. 'This is Ms. Ryan, the one I was talking about.'  
'Yes miss Ryan, I never had the opportunity to officially introduce myself, my name is-'  
'Remus Lupin, yes, It's nice to meet you. You've actually one of my favorite characters to read about.' she finished for him as she shook his hand.  
'Ah yes, the gift of telling the future?' he asked confused. Emily crooked her head to look at Dumbledore.  
'You haven't told him?' she asked.  
'I don't need to now.' he sent her a look.  
'Sorry.' she said. 'Well I should leave you, you seemed like you were talking about something important. I'll be setting my things in my room sir.' she said picking up her things and leaving to go to her room.  
'It was nice to meet you miss Ryan.' Lupin said.

She kicked open the door and dropped her stuff onto her bed. She removed the stray bits of hair from her face and began to unpack the box. The door quickly swung open then shut instantly a second later. She swung around to see what it was.  
'Okay we _really_ need to talk.' Fred said. Emily sighed and turned back to her box.  
'And why would we do that?'  
'Because I know you've been avoiding me all year and I can't take it anymore.' he said and Emily turned around to face him.  
'What do you want me to say to you Fred?' she asked. 'And how did you even get in here?'  
'That doesn't matter.'  
'Actually, it might.' she said clearly.  
I don't want you to say anything to me I just-' He took a deep breath and walked up to her. 'Emily,' God, she knew he was serious when he used her full name, 'can we just forget it ever happened?' he asked.  
'What? Like, I never...?' she asked blushing.  
'Yeah, I mean, forget that night even happened?'  
'Everything?'  
'Everything.' he repeated.  
'Oh...' she said kind of depressed. 'If that's what you're happy with? Sure.' she smiled, forcing it on.  
'Great.' he smiled back. 'Because we have a _lot_of catching up to do.' he said.

Emily, Angelina, Fred, George, Ron and Hermione were all eating breakfast on the last day of school. They had no classes because it was a Saturday. Hermione and Emily were staring at Ron as he ate. It was disgusting.  
'Do you ever stop eating?' The two girls asked at once.  
'Will you ever _start_ eating? You haven't even touched your eggs.' he pointed out.  
'that's because I _hate_ eggs Ronald.' she said.  
'Huh, I never knew you didn't like eggs.' Fred said.  
'Well there's a lot you don't know about me.' she smiled. 'And Yes Ron, you can have them.' she said as she saw him eyeing them. Owls began to fill the room and post was dropped throughout it. A package that looked about the size of a broom fell onto the table.  
'Um, okay?' Angelina said as it fell onto the toast.  
'Oh great, guess we can't eat that!' Ron said.  
'You mean you?' Hermione said.  
'Who's it for?' Angelina asked.  
'Harry.' Emily said as she was checking the label.  
'How could you have possibly known that?' she asked astounded.  
'Just a hunch.' she said.  
'Open it.' Fred and George said at the same time.  
'Me? No way. If Harry finds out-' Ron said.  
'He'll be fine! Just open it!' Emily said. Ron gave up and began to unwrap the parcel. It was a Fire bolt.  
'Wicked.' the twins said.  
'Is that what I think it is?' Seamus asked as a group formed around the broom. 'Amazing!' Just then Harry came walking into the hall to see a crowd around the Gryffindor table.  
'Harry where ever did you get it?' Neville asked.  
'Can I have a go on it Harry? After you O'course!' Seamus asked.  
'What are you talking about?' Harry asked as he approached the bench.  
'I didn't mean to open it Harry, they made me!' Ron said accusing the twins.  
'Did not!' they said. Harry's eyes lit u once he saw it.  
'But- who sent it?' he asked looking for a tag.  
'This came with it.' Hermione stated picking up a long, grey feather, knowing it was from Buckbeak. Harry ran out of the great hall instantly and into the entrance courtyard, where he mounted his broom and took off, with the entire house cheering him on.

'That was amazing!' Emily said as she walked down the corridor.  
'Harry's so lucky!' Fred said.  
'I know right! I just hope he lets me have a go on that.' she laughed. She helped Ginny carry her trunk down to the entrance hall.  
'You really don't have to do that Em.' she said.  
'Nonsense! Of course I did.' she said.  
'You going to come stay at the burrow this summer?' she asked.  
'Defiantly. I had so much fun there last year, it would be a shame not to. I can't wait for next year though, it'll be so much fun!' she squealed as she put down the trunk and hugged Ginny. 'Hopefully Dumbledore will let me stay longer.' she smiled. She hugged each and every Weasley, Angelina, Katie, Harry, and Hermione.

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	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20:**

**O****_ne month later..._**

_Dear Emily,_

_Hope you're having a great summer so far, but I didn't write to actually ask you that I'm afraid. I'm writing because dad managed to score our family tickets to go to the Quidditch World Cup that's coming up. We have an extra ticket and I was wondering if maybe you would like to come along. You'd be joining me, along with George, Ron, dad, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Bill, Charlie, Percy, and Amos Diggory and his son Cedric that goes to our school. I hope you would be okay bunking with Ginny, it'll be a full house but hey, the more the merrier huh? Hope you can make it, it's a chance of a lifetime! Mum will wait for your rely tomorrow morning.  
Love, Fred._

Emily was sitting in the owlery, she read over the letter numerous times, she couldn't wait! She quickly ran out of the building and into the castle to immediately tell Dumbledore about the news. She knocked on his door.  
'Sir? You there?' she asked.  
'Come in Emily.' he called. Emily entered and stood in front of him with a huge smile on his face. 'What is it?' he asked. She walked up to him and handed him the letter and he began to read it over.  
'They're inviting me to stay there, and go to the World Cup.' she said.  
'Ah yes, I don't think that will do.' he said handing it to her.  
'Wait- what?' she asked. 'Why can't I go?' she asked.  
'Were you there in the story?' he asked.  
'Well no but-'  
'There is no _buts_ about it.' he said turning away and heading to his desk.  
'Sir, please. I wasn't supposed to go to the burrow last summer either, or even be at this school but alas, here I am.' she said with enthusiasm. He took a long breath in and thought about it. 'Please? It's a chance of a lifetime.' she asked sincerely.  
'Oh alright fine.' he said. Emily smiled and ran to hug him.  
'Thank you!' she shouted. 'I promise I _won't_ do anything that I'm not supposed to.' she said.  
'I hope not, I trust you. Just-' he said looking down at her. 'Be careful, fate is something you don't want to play around with.'  
'I know.' she smiled and headed out.

_Dear Fred,  
I've already consoled Dumbledore and he's given me permission to stay there and go to the Cup. This'll be so exciting I can hardly wait! I'm really looking forward to seeing you and everyone else as well. The only "fun" I've had around here since everyone left for the summer is my homework. Not much left to be done but hey, it's still school work. I'm also looking forward to meeting your other brothers as well they sound neat. Have a great summer until then!  
Love Emily._

Fred laid on his bed rereading that letter over and over again, smiling to himself.  
'What are you so happy about?' George asked coming into his and Fred's room.  
'What, nothing.' he said putting the letter down. George quickly grabbed the letter and Fred bolted up to take it from him. "Georgy give it back.'  
'Ah, a letter from _Emily._' he said. Fred ripped it out of his hands.  
'Shut up you git.'  
'Emily? Did someone say Emily?' Mrs. Weasley said coming into their room with a clean load of laundry.  
'Yes actually, Fred's got a letter from her.' George smiled.  
'Oh has she agreed to attend the Cup?' she asked.  
'Yeah, she should be here in a few days.' Fred said sitting back down onto his bed.  
'Wonderful, I'll go make up her bed then.' Molly said as she left the room. George looked at his brother.  
'Still haven't asked her out huh?' he asked falling onto his own bed. Fred shook his head.  
'Ever since last year, in the kitchen, she just seemed distant.' he said.  
'How so?' George asked.  
'Well she was going on about how she felt like she was broken and didn't feel like she was working.'  
'What's she made of plastic?' George joked. Fred gave him a look.  
'Something's wrong with her, she's hiding something.'  
'Well _of course _she's hiding something. She's a girl! They always have something to hide.' George said.  
'Well whatever it is I'm _going _to find out.' Fred said before they went to sleep.

* * *

Emily had Professor McGonagall apparate her and her things to the burrow. She was currently standing in the middle of a wide, open, deserted field.  
'Thank you Professor.' she said to McGonagall.  
'No problem at all miss Ryan I'll leave you to it then.' she said and disapparated. Emily picked up her trunk and lugged it in the direction of the burrow. She readjusted herself and was struggling to open the kitchen door, but managed to do it. She opened it and no one seemed to be around. She could hear the sound of dishes washing themselves and an old grandfather clock ticking. She put her stuff down beside the kitchen table and walked further into the house.  
'Hello?' she called. 'Is anybody home?' After she said that Mrs. Weasley came out from around the corner drying her hands on a small rag.  
'Ah Emily dear! It's so nice to see you!' she said hugging her. 'I'm so glad you could join us.'  
'It's nice to see you too Mrs. Weasley.' she said when she pulled away.  
'Oh how many times do I have to tell you, call me Molly dear.'  
'Emily!' they turned around to see Ginny.  
'Hey Ginny, how's it going?' she asked as she hugged her.  
'I'm great how are you?'  
'Wonderful!' she said pulling back. 'Where's everyone else?'  
'Oh they went to go fetch Harry, they should be back soon though.' she said.  
'Great.' she smiled.  
'Ginny honey, help Emily settle in would you.' Molly said. 'I'll get lunch ready.'

Ginny was right, within the next half hour they all returned with Harry and his stuff. She was sitting on the couch with Ginny reading Witch Weekly when they returned. The two of them decided to sit there for as long as they could without them noticing Emily had arrived. They didn't even notice. The girls were practically going to explode with laughter.  
'That one over there, that's Charlie.' Ginny pointed out. 'And the one over there is Bill.' she said pointing at the one with the longer red hair. He took a seat on the arm chair a few feet away from them.  
'Who are you?' he asked.  
'Shhh.' the girls said looking at everyone else. Bill turned to the family.  
'Who is she?' he asked. They all looked at the couch.  
'Em!' Fred said as he ran up to her and hugged her. Emily stood up and swung her arms around him in a tight hug. 'I'm so glad you could come.' he said.  
'Me too.' Fred turned to Bill.  
'This is Emily.' he smiled.  
'When did you get a girlfriend?' he asked. Both Fred and Emily turned red, and a few people stared at the two.  
'Um, we aren't-' he said.  
'We're not-' She said.  
'Oh...' Bill smiled.  
'Awkward!' Charlie said from the kitchen.  
'No no, Emily is just our best friend, has been ever since first year.' George said putting himself between the two, splitting them up and hanging an arm around both of their shoulders. He could feel Emily pull away a small bit when he mentioned first year.  
'Well then it's nice to meet you Emily.' Bill shook her hand.

'I don't think that could have been more awkward.' Emily said hanging upside down on Ginny's bed. Hermione, Ginny and Emily were waiting for lunch t be ready in her room.  
'You know it really wasn't that bad Emily.' Hermione said trying to cheer her up.  
'Are you kidding, it was hilarious!' Ginny laughed. 'You should have seen your guys' faces!'  
'Not helping Ginny!' Hermione nudged her.  
'No she's right, it was awful. Not only did I feel awkward, but I'm sure Fred's going on about it with his brother right now.' Emily said sitting right side up now.  
'Just try not to think about it, it's nothing.' Hermione said.  
'But what if it's something.' Emily said with wide eyes.  
'What are you talking about?' Ginny asked. 'what are you saying?' she seemed worried.  
'You mean you-'  
'I don't know, maybe.' Emily shrugged.  
'Emily, no. Stop, you're being ridiculous. There is no way in hell that you actually _like _Fred.' Hermione said.  
'Ya she's right, he's my brother, and that's weird.' she said. Emily got up and walked in little circles thinking to herself.  
'I _know _he likes _me_, he told me in the kitchen. But what if that was my only chance? What if he doesn't feel that way about me any more What if I had the opportunity and I shut it down?' Emily asked.  
'Emily listen to yourself.' Hermione laughed.  
'I'm serious Hermione, I think I might _actually_ like Fred.' she said.

Molly decided to have lunch out in the garden that day, it was a nice lunch, the sky was clear, it was warm and sunny and beautiful out, and Emily would rather be out there for lunch than inside. After lunch her and the twins went for a little walk around the house.  
'So what's the cup going to be like?' she asked.  
'How're we to know?'  
'We've never been.' Fred finished for his twin.  
'God I hate it when you two do that.' she smiled. They walked towards the shed. 'You got any brooms in there? Oh! We should play Quidditch!' she suggested as she opened it up.  
'Can't. Mum took our brooms away last week.' Fred told her.  
'Why?' she asked slowly.  
'It might be due to the fact that we made Ginny cry.' George said rubbing the back of his neck.  
'What did I tell you, I told you not to mess with poor Ginny!' she said.  
'You said her room!' George shot back.  
'Still...' she entered the small shed and found nothing but a few beat up Quaffles and Bludgers, and beater bats. Suddenly an idea hit Emily 'Hey, why don't we play a game of baseball?' she asked.  
'What?' George asked.  
'Baseball.' she said again.  
'What is that?' he asked.  
'You know, the muggle game where you toss a ball at a bat like this and the batter, or beater in this case, hits it as far as they can?' she said pointing to the bat.  
'Who's going to play?' Fred asked.  
'Everyone. Me, you, George, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, your older brothers, Percy if he wants to, and your dad.' she smiled.  
'Want to give it a go?' Fred asked his brother. He shrugged.  
'Couldn't hurt.' George said. The three of them grabbed the bat, and the bludger, and ran up to the house.

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	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21:**

Emily, Fred and George managed to get them all playing, that is except for Molly of course, she decided that she would just clean the house and prepare dinner.  
'Alright, we'll divide the teams evenly.' Emily said after they set up the field. They were playing a few ways away from the house because Mrs. Weasley didn't want Bludgers flying into her window every so often. 'Fred, Ginny, Charlie, Ron and Arthur, you will be on one team. Bill, George, Harry, Hermione and Percy and me will be on the other.' she said.  
'We have Percy? That's not fair!' George complained.  
'Shut it!' she said.  
'Okay the whole point of the game is to not let us on this team,' she said pointing at her team, 'get to that base.' she said pointing at the home plate. 'You want to pitch the ball at the beater bat and when I hit it, you all out on the field try your best to catch it and touch the runner.' she explained. 'Got it? Good. Any questions?' George put his hand up.  
'What happens when we tag the runner with the bludger?' he asked.  
'Then they're out and the next person in line goes up to bat.' she said. 'Well let's get to it. Arthur! You'll be the pitcher.' she said. Everyone went scattered to their bases and lined up to bat. Emily walked up to Fred who was holding the beater bat and put her hand out.  
'The bat if you would sir.' He smiled and handed it to her.  
'Good luck.' he said and took his position as the back catcher. Emily smirked and got up to bat. She decided she would go first to show the rest of them how it was done. Emily took advantage of this and smiled to herself. She could feel Fred's eyes on her from behind.

'Ready?' Arthur called out. She gave him a nod and he threw the ball. As it came towards her, Emily swung the bat as hard as she could and hit the Bludger out into the air. She dropped the bat right away and ran to first base.  
'Wow, she'd make an excellent beater.' George said from the sideline. Charlie ran out to catch it but it fell to the ground and Emily made it to first base before she was tagged. It was Percy's turn to bat. Arthur threw it and Percy missed the first time.  
'Strike one!' Emily shouted. 'Remember three of those you're out!' Arthur tossed it to him again, missing it a second time. Fred tossed it back to his dad. He threw it one more time but Percy missed.  
'You're out!' Ginny yelled.' It was Harry's turn to bat. Harry hit it and it fell between Charlie and Ron. Ron grabbed it and headed to first base. Emily ran to second base. Harry was tagged before he could reach first.  
'George you turn!' Emily shouted.  
'Great, this should be easy.' he said.  
'Good luck Georgy.' Fred said from behind him. 'Try not to trip and fall, we wouldn't want any accidents.'  
'shut it Fred.' George said as he picked up the bat. Arthur tossed it to him and George hit it as hard as he could. The Bludger flew across the field, over one hundred yards. Everyone watched in astonishment.  
'Run George Run!' Emily shouted. The two of them ran as fast as they could as Ron passed the Bludger to Charlie, from Charlie to Ginny. Emily was making her way to home as Ginny passed to Fred. It all happened in a blink of an eye and no one saw what happened first, whether Emily made it home, or Fred tagged her with the Bludger.  
'I got it!' they said at the same time.  
'No way it was me.' she said.  
'Oh c'mon Em, I got you first, sorry.' he smirked. Emily was surprised.  
'Oh really, is that what you think?' she asked.  
'It's what happened.' he said, still smirking. She smiled and shook her head as she walked off.  
'Switch!' Arthur yelled.

Emily decided to be the pitcher this round.  
'Alright its 0 all, let's make this round quick, I'm sure Molly's got dinner ready.' she said. Everyone got into their positions. Ginny got up to bat first. 'Ready Gin'  
'Go for it.' she said. Emily tossed her the ball and Ginny hit it as far as George. Bill ran and chased the ball in the air as he watched it fly. He caught it and everybody clapped.  
'Nice going Bill!' she said. 'You're out Gin, Charlie you're up!' Charlie got up to bat. Emily tossed him the ball and he got one strike, the next time he hit it though, he managed to get onto second base. The game went on until almost everyone went up to bat, the bases were loaded and it was Fred's turn to bat. He walked up to the base and picked up the bat.  
'You ready Fred?' she asked.  
'Get on with it Ryan!' Emily laughed and tossed him the ball. She managed to throw a curve ball, and Fred didn't hit it.  
'I thought you were ready!' she said.  
'C'mon Fred! Give it a good beat!' Bill Charlie shouted from third. Fred got into his ready position again, as Harry passed Emily the ball.  
'C'mon you've got to hit _this _one.' Emily said. She tossed him the ball again, with another curve.  
'Fred what're you doing? Hit it!' Ginny shouted. Emily had possession of the bludger again.  
'Alright, last chance Fredy.' Emily smirked. Fred shot her a look. She tossed it again, this time normally. Fred wasn't prepared for it, but was ready for the curve ball. He missed it again. 'Strike three, you're out!' she shouted.  
'whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second that wasn't- he began.  
'Fred it was completely fair.' she said.  
'Time for supper!' Molly shouted from the house. Everyone went running into the house.

'Charlie, elbows off the table dear.' Molly said as she began to dish out numerous peoples food. It was a full house. The table wasn't big enough to have everybody sitting down, so a bunch of them just sat in the living room with their food and socialized. The older ones got to sit at the table first though, which was fine with everyone else, because it meant they could socialize more with each other. 'Emily, don't be afraid to dish up.' Molly said and pet her cheek, Emily smiled.  
'I won't.' Emily dished up and joined her friends in the living room. She sat on the floor in front of the couch with Ginny behind her.  
'That was so much fun Em!' Ginny said. 'Where on earth did you learn how to play that?'  
'Well we'd play it a lot at the orphanage, when I stayed there.' she said shoving some salad into her mouth.  
'We've got to do it again. I've seen muggles play that before.' Hermione added.  
'You'd make one hell of a beater Em.' George said with food hanging from his mouth.  
'Why thank you.' she bowed. They spent the rest of the time talking about the Quidditch World Cup, then realized it was getting late. Emily got up and picked up a few stay plates around the floor that people have forgotten and brought them into the kitchen where she saw Molly working on the dishes.  
'Why don't you just use magic to do the dishes?' she asked.  
'I like doing the dishes. I don't enjoy using magic all the time, it would make the whole lot of us lazy. Plus I'd have nothing to do all day.' She smiled.  
'Well why don't you head up to bed, I'll finish up for you.' Emily suggested.  
'Oh I can't let you do that, it's alright.'  
'No I insist. It's the least I can do for you letting me stay here, go on.' she said taking the cloth from Molly.  
'Alright, good night dear.' she said and headed up to bed.

Emily stacked the plates up beside the counter and filled the sink with hot, soapy water and began to rinse them off and wash them when another stack was plopped onto the counter beside her.  
'Now why on earth are you doing the dishes?' Fred asked, leaning on the counter.  
'It's the least I can do.' she smiled. 'Plus I enjoy it, it's kind of fun.' Fred smiled and picked up a towel and began to dry off the dishes she had laid out to dry.  
'You know, that was a nasty trick you pulled earlier.' he said.  
'Whatever do you mean?' she asked, knowing _exactly_ what he meant.  
'I mean in that muggle game.'  
'Baseball?' she laughed.  
'Yes!'  
'It wasn't a trick Fred, it was called skill.' she passed him a plate. 'And besides, I can say the same thing to you.' Fred looked at her confused.  
'Are you referring to when I got you out?'  
'No you didn't get me out! I got there first, fair and square!' she poked him.  
'Did not.'  
'did too!' They heard a big fit of laughter coming from the other room which distracted them and they both looked into the direction of the living room, they were all still in there in there. 'Whatever, I just made it even.' she returned to cleaning the dishes.  
'Whatever you say.' he laughed.  
'I did.'  
'Did not.'  
'Did too.'  
'Are we _really _going to start this again?' he asked. She handed the last dish to Fred to dry and emptied the sink.  
'Well that was fun.' she said.  
'What's next? We gonna sweep the floors?' he joked. Emily leaned against the counter with her elbows.  
'I can't wait till we go to the cup, it'll be so much fun.' she smiled, thinking about what it would be like.

'Em, can I ask you a question?' Fred asked, Emily looked towards him with her eyebrow raised.  
'Depends, what is it?' she asked.  
'Why don't you want to go back to the orphanage?' he said quickly, as if he'd really wanted to say it for a long time. Emily sighed.  
'Then no, you can't ask me a question.' she said getting up and walking out the kitchen door, into the cool, summer night.

'No Em, listen.' he said following her. 'Every time we bring it up, or just mention it you get all bummed out, why?'  
'I don't want to talk about it.' she said still walking.  
'No.' he rushed in front of her and stopped her. 'We're going to talk about it. Tell me, did something happen there?' he asked.  
'No! Nothing happened there, it's not that I don't want to talk about it, it's just- I'm not sure if I'm allowed. I'm just really confused right now about a lot of things and _this _isn't something I want to get into.' she said. Fred removed his hands from her shoulders.  
'You're not talking about the orphanage, are you?' he asked. Emily took a breath in and looked at the ground.  
'I-' she said.  
'Em listen, we said we'd forget about the kiss, but honestly, it's the only thing I can think about when I'm around you. That kiss-'  
'Stop saying kiss, it happened!'  
'I know, but Em-' He tilted her chin up so that she was looking him in the eye. 'look at me and tell me you don't think about it.' he said. They stood for a moment, both looking at each other.  
'I can't.' she whispered.  
'Exactly. Em I can't forget about it, no matter how hard I try you always have some clever way of wandering back into my mind, to be honest, I don't even think I _want _to forget about it.' he said. Emily blushed to herself at the thought of kissing Fred. With his hand still on her chin, he slowly leaned in and, still looking in her eyes, closed the gap between them and kissed. her. Emily's eyes fell shut and she gave into the kiss. She wrapped her arms around Fred and kissed him harder. He moved his hand down to cup her face, and the other slid around her back to hold her even closer to him. She could feel Fred smiling into the kiss, which made her smile as well. Soon, to both of their displeasure, they broke apart in need of air.  
'Now I don't know about you, but now I know I _can't _forget about that.' he said. Emily laughed and kissed him again. The two of them stood out in the cool summer night, not wanting that moment to end.

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	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22:**

Fred and Emily decided to keep the fact that their dating to themselves, they agreed that they would wait until _after _the World Cup to tell everyone. Emily was working in the kitchen and helping Molly prepare breakfast, it was _really _early out. It was pitch black out and some would say it was maybe three or four in the morning.  
'Emily dear, would you mind setting the table in the other room.' Molly said, peeling some potatoes.  
'Sure no problem.' she said and picked up the plates and headed into the other room. She began to set plates and silverware around the table when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her from behind, she smiled.  
'Good morning.' Fred said softly into her ear, and kissed the side of her neck. Emily smiled and spun around in his arms.  
'Good morning.' she gave him a proper kiss on the mouth.  
'I love being able to do that now.' he said.  
'Me too.' they heard footsteps coming from the kitchen and the two of them broke apart and Fred quickly helped her set the table.  
'Fred dear I hardly heard you come down. Would you help me in the kitchen when you're done?' she asked Emily.  
'Ya I'll be right there.' she called after her as Molly walked back into the kitchen.  
'I wonder how mum would take the news?' he thought out loud as he took a seat at the table, leaving Emily to finish it.  
'About what, us?' she asked him as she manoeuvred around Fred's arm and picked it up off of the table to fix the plate setting.  
'Ya.'  
'I bet she'd be absolutely thrilled.' Emily said.  
'You think?'  
'Well I think she'd just be shocked, I don't think she ever thought you would have been able to get a girlfriend.' she joked.  
'Ha ha, very funny.' he mocked.  
'I have to go help your mum boil those potatoes.' she smiled. 'See you at breakfast.' she kissed him again. She left the room leaving Fred smiling to himself, that is until he realized she hadn't finished setting the table.  
'Sneaky.' he said to himself as he finished setting it himself.

'Ginny wake up! Breakfast is already on the table!' Emily shouted at her door. She walked over to Fred and George's room and pounded on the door. 'Wake up George! If your brother can wake up without a warning, so can you!'  
'You're a little annoying, you know that?' Ron said emerging from his room with Harry with him.  
'Well at least I got _someone_ up.' she smiled and headed down stairs for breakfast. Emily, Fred, Hermione, Percy and Molly were all up and ready to go and already eating breakfast.  
'Where's Bill and Charlie?' Ron asked coming down the stairs.  
'They're going to meet the lot of you at the cup, instead of using the port key, now come on, tuck in.' Molly said dishing out his breakfast. They finished up and everyone had packed their stuff and was ready to go. 'George, what's that?' Molly asked pointing towards his pants.  
'I dunno really, you made them.' he said.  
'No in your pocket.' she cleared up. George pulled the hem of his shirt lower to cover his pockets.  
'Nothing.' he said and Fred and George rushed out of the house.  
'_Accio!_' She shouted, pointing her wand at her boys. A bunch of candy flew out of their pockets, and onto the table. 'I knew it! What have I told you two about making these rigged sweets?' she yelled. She confiscated the rest of them and everyone left the house.

'Where are we actually going?' Harry asked.  
'I don't know.' said Ron. 'Hey dad! Where're we going?' he shouted up to the front at his dad.  
'The port key, Keep up!' he shouted. The all dragged their feet and tried to keep up with Arthur.  
'Arthur! It's about time!' A man yelled when they all reached the deepest part of the woods.  
'Sorry Amos, some of us had a sleepy start.' Arthur said looking at Ron and Harry. 'This is Amos Diggory everyone. He works at the Ministry with me.' Arthur introduced. Cedric jumped out of the tree above them. 'And this is his son, Cedric.'  
'Hello.' he said at the lot of them. They all shook hands.  
'Emily Ryan.' she introduced herself to Amos, while shaking his hand.  
'Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're the orphan whom Dumbledore had so politely taken under his wing.' he said.  
'Um, ya. That's me.' she said.  
'Well it's excellent to meet you.' He smiled.

She _wasn't _an orphan. They reached the top of the hill and all grabbed hold of the old, rotting boot and fell to the ground in an instant. It was just like apparating. Except, instead of feeling like you're going to be sick, you fell on your back from several feet up in the air, landing flat on the ground.  
'Lovely.' she coughed and sat up.  
'You get used to it.' Fred said helping her up.

They got to the cup.  
'Oh my goodness! This is beyond anything I could have ever imagines myself!' Emily said as they made their ways through the crowd to their own tent. There were people flying on brooms, dancing, laughing and having a good time. Each camp had _clear _colours on who they were hoping would win.  
'Guess this is where we part ways.' Amos said as he shook Arthurs hand.  
'See you at the match.'  
'See you at the match.' Amos said and left with his son. Emily couldn't help feel bad for the man, she felt guilty for knowing he would soon lose Cedric.  
'You alright?' Fred asked her.  
'Huh, ya I was just caught up in thought.' she said smiling at him. He opened the tent for her and they both went in. 'Amazing.' she stated.  
'Girls choose a bunk and unpack.' Arthur said. 'Get out of the kitchen Ron!'  
'Ya get out of the kitchen Ron!' The twins shouted taking a seat at the table and putting their feet up.  
'Feet off the table.' Arthur warned.  
'Feet off the table!' the twins said as they took them off until he wasn't looking, and put them on again.  
'I love magic.' Harry said.  
'That makes two of us.' she smiled.

It wasn't long until they went up to the Quidditch pitch for the match. Arthur had gotten them amazing seats! They were up at the top, where the players flew around more. The bad news was that they had to climb an enormous amount of stairs to get there.  
'How far up are we dad?' Ron asked.  
'Well let's put it this way, if it rains, you'll be the first to know.' came a voice. Emily turned and saw Lucius walking straight towards him.  
'Great.' she rolled her eyes. Draco came strolling behind his father.  
'Father got us special seats in the ministers bow, by personal invitation of the man himself.' Draco said cheekily.  
'Don't boast Draco, there's no need to with _these _people.' Lucius said.  
'Come on, let's go.' Emily whispered as they headed up another flight of stairs.  
'Ah miss Ryan, has it been two years since we last crossed paths? Surely we shouldn't wait that long again.' he said. Emily was disgusted at the very sight of him.  
'Indeed, longer next time.' she smiled. Harry turned to walk away when Lucius stopped him.  
'Do enjoy yourself, while you can.' he sneered. They continued in until they got to their spots.

* * *

The match was amazing! Ireland won to Bulgaria at the end, she was glad the team she was cheering for won. They were in the tent late that evening, celebrating the victory.  
'There's no one like Krum!' Ron said.  
'Krum?' the twins asked.  
'He's like a bird the way he rides the wind. He's more than just an athlete, he's an artist!' Ron told them.  
'I think you're in love Ron.' Ginny Teased.  
'Shut up.'  
'Victor I love you!' Fred sang.  
'Victor I do!' George joined in.  
'When we're apart my heart beats only for you!' the rest of them joined in. they could hear explosions coming from outside the tent. Emily tensed up, the smile leaving her face.  
'Sounds like the Irish's got their pride on.' Fred laughed.  
'Stop!'Arthur said. 'No it isn't the Irish, we've got to get out of here.'  
'Is it an attack?' Emily asked.  
'Yes, everyone meet up at the port key.' Arthur instructed. 'Fred, George, Ginny is your responsibility!' They all left the tent and went their separate ways. Emily could see Harry and Hermione needed help, but Fred pulled her back, she was heading right into the middle of the explosions.  
'No! No they need help!' she shouted.  
'Come on! They'll be fine.' he said pulling her away. Emily gave in and followed Fred, he took her by the hand, into the forest where they found George and Ginny. Together, they waited until the attack was over.

'We've got to go back and help them.' Emily said.  
'How do we even know they need help?' George asked.  
'Well we can't risk it. If it was any of you, I'd do the same, c'mon!' she said as she ran into the deserted, smoky remains of what once was the world cup. 'Hermione!' she shouted. The rest of them followed behind her. 'Hermione!' she called again.  
'Emily?' came a faint voice from the distance.  
'Hermione!' she shouted again. She could see two figures coming out of the smoke.  
'Emily! Oh thank goodness we found you guys!' She flew at Emily and hugged her.  
'Are you alright?' Emily asked.  
'Just fine, but we lost Harry back there, it looked like he got trampled over.' Hermione said.  
'We went looking for him, but we couldn't find him.' Ron said.  
'Well maybe if we all try we'll find him.' Fred suggested. They all followed Emily and searched around the rubble for Harry.  
'Harry!' Hermione shouted. 'I think I see him!' she said, pointing towards a beat up tent. 'Harry!' she shouted again. Ron and Hermione ran after him and caught him.  
'There you are, we were looking everywhere for you.' she said.  
'C'mon let's go.' Ron said.  
'What are you looking at?' Hermione asked.  
'Nothing.' Harry said. Suddenly, a bunch of wizards appeared and surrounded them.  
_'Reducto!'_ they shouted at once.  
'STOP! THAT'S MY SON!' Arthur shouted, running towards the group of kids.  
'You've all just been discovered at the scene of the crime!' Fudge declared.  
'Crime? What crime?' Harry asked. Emily nudged him and pointed into the sky.  
'That's the dark mark Harry, it's _his_mark.' she said.

* * *

They returned back to the burrow early, they were all carrying their backpacks that were covered in ashes, as was most of their clothes. Emily coughed up a bit of dust and cleared her throat as she caught eye of the burrow.  
'Home sweet home, for now I guess anyway.' she said.  
'There you are!' Molly shouted, running at the twins with her arms open wide. 'I'm so sorry! After what I heard happened at the match, I felt so bad that the last thing I could have done was yell at the two of you!' She wrapped her arms around the twins.  
'Does this mean you'll let us have our candy back then?' George asked. Molly scowled.  
'Don't push your luck. The rest of you, in the house. I want _no_ dirt inside whatsoever.' she said. Emily took a _long_ warm shower when she got in. She was able to get all of the ashes out of her hair. She emerged from Ginny's room when she was done changing, her hair still a bit damp. She walked downstairs and into the living room.  
'Well that went well.' Fred said, coming down the stair case, rolling up his sleeves.  
'It could have been worse.' she suggested.  
'Really?' he asked as he kissed her.  
'Mhm.'  
'How so?'  
'Well one of could have died.' she said.  
'Given, that would have been pretty bad.' he said. 'But don't worry,' he kissed her again. 'I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.' she smiled into the kiss.

'You don't have a girlfriend huh?' Bill said, leaning against the wall. The two of them broke apart in an instant.  
'Um, we, well we-' Emily began.  
'No need to explain.' Bill smiled.  
'Bill, you've got a girlfriend?' George asked, coming in and taking a seat on the couch.  
'Oh not me brother.' Bill smirked, looking between Fred and Emily. The two of them were both red in the face.  
'Shut it!' George said, looking at them smiling. 'And when may I ask did this happen?' he got up and crossed his arms.  
'Yesterday when-' Fred began but was interrupted by Hermione, Ginny, Harry and Ron coming down the stairs.  
'What's going on? Hermione asked. Molly came into the house with a basket full of strawberries.  
'Why are all of you gathered in here, why not play outside?' she asked.

They were all staring at Fred and Emily.  
'Well might as well tell them.' Emily said to him.  
'We _were _going to weren't we?' he asked, Emily nodded.  
'Tell us what?' Ron asked. Emily looked at Fred.  
'Well, me and Emily, we're uhm,'  
'We're dating.' Emily said, too excited to wait for Fred to say it. she looked over at Molly, who had an overjoyed expression on her face.  
'I knew it! I always knew the two of you would get together!' she smiled going up and hugging them at once.  
'That's great new guys.' Ginny smiled from the staircase. They all spent the rest of the night trying their very best to forget about what happened at the cup, and just enjoyed each other's company, soon to be returning to Hogwarts.

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	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23:**

Emily lugged her trunk down the stairs and let it rest on the ground.  
'Going so soon?' Molly asked.  
'Ya well, seeing as we didn't get to actually _stay_ at the cup, Dumbledore thinks it's a good idea for me to be home- eh, back at the castle.' she corrected herself.  
'Oh well it was so nice having you stay with us dear, don't be afraid to stop by every once and awhile.' she hugged Emily, cradled her face, something only a mother would do of course. Fred and George came into the room from de-gnomifying the garden. Emily walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie. Fred saw her trunk and looked at her curiously.  
'Leaving are we?' he asked.  
'I told you last night.' she laughed. 'Dumbledore sent the owl for me, remember?' she asked. Fred smiled mischievously.  
'I remember a lot of things from last night love, but I _don't_ remember that.' Emily's eyes went wide.  
'Excuse me, what happened last night?' Molly asked.  
'Nothing. Nothing happened last night, Fred's trying to be funny.' she smiled. Fred tilted her chin up to kiss her.  
'I'll see you at school.' he said. 'I'll miss you.'  
'I'll miss you too.' she smiled and hugged him. 'Molly, do you know where I can find Arthur?' she asked.  
'Yes dear, he should be in the shed, he'll apparate you to the castle straight away.' She leaned out the window. 'Arthur!' she called. Emily gave one last wave to Fred and George, and left the house. 'You know,' George began, 'I'm never going to get used to you two together.' Fred laughed and the two of them went up to their room, to begin packing for school.

'Thank you Arthur, I really appreciate it.' Emily smiled.  
'Not a problem Emily, I'll just leave you to it.' Arthur said, shook her hand goodbye and disapparated. She soon made her way into the castle. She stopped immediately.  
'Oh my god.' she said with wide eyes. 'What have I done?'  
'Miss Ryan?' came a familiar, dull toned voice emerging from the great hall.  
'Sir.' she calmed down.  
'Now why would someone such as yourself have conflicted thoughts about something, not to even start the school year?' he asked. She always had the feeling that Snape could see into her soul.  
'I'm not conflicted with something, I just-' she paused. 'Am really excited to be back.' she smiled. She could tell he didn't believe her. She was there for a bloody minute, and he could _already_ tell she was hiding something.  
'Very well, proceed to your dormitory.' he said and fled. She got to the Gryffindor common room and began unpacking, school was going to start tomorrow, she might as well get settled now. There was a knock on the door, Emily flew around.  
'Oh, sir, come in.' she said to Dumbledore.  
'I trust your visit back to the Weasley household went well?' he asked.  
'It was, manageable.' she shrugged.  
'I do have to ask, what happened at the Cup?' he said.  
'Harry got carried away in the crowd, we found him later on, looking at the dark mark, which was conjured by-' she stopped herself when he held up a hand.  
'I don't need to know who conjured it, at least not now.' she nodded. 'Are you alright, did anyone hurt you?' he asked.  
'No. I'm fine.' she smiled.  
'Are you sure, because I could-' Emily began to laugh.  
'Really I am.' she said.  
'Well, I'll leave you to your unpacking, feel free to travel to the village, it _is _that last day of summer after all.'  
'Oh sir!' she said before he left the room. 'When do you think the other schools will show up?' she asked. Dumbledore turned around with his eyebrows raised.  
'You _do_ know everything, don't you?' He left the room, and she continued to unpack.

* * *

Students began to file in in enormous amounts at once. Emily was standing beside the entrance to the great hall in search of any of her friends. She was lugged aside.  
'Emily!' Angelina squealed.  
'Oh my goodness! Angelina how was your summer?' she asked.  
'Oh you can hear about that later, tell me about _yours_.' she winked.  
'What are you talking about?' Emily asked.  
'A little birdie told me you and Fred are together now.' she smiled.  
'Ange, we _both_ know that your little "birdie" is George!' she teased. 'And yes, we are.' she blushed as she saw the Weasley's come into the entrance hall.  
'Go, I'll save you a seat.' Angelina smiled as she pushed her friend towards Fred. George and Angelina entered the hall, and left the two of them alone. Emily quickly pulled him into a hug and kissed him. When they pulled back Fred moved a stray hair out of her eye.  
'It seems like the first thing we do when we see each other is snog.' he laughed.  
'And you have a problem with that?' she asked. He kissed her before he answered.  
'Absolutely not.' he said as they entered the hall with a bunch of other students. She saw a bunch of teachers begin to take their seats, and Emily slowly pulled away from Fred. 'What's wrong?' he asked.  
'Nothing, I just need to tell you something later.' she said.  
'Alright.' he shrugged. 'When do you want to talk about it?'  
'I'll meet you in the kitchen after curfew.' the two of them sat down across from each other on the table as Dumbledore began to talk.

'Now that we're all settled in, I'd like to make an announcement.' he began. 'this castle will not only be your home this year, but also to our special guests as well. Hogwarts has been chosen to host the Triwizard Tournament. This brings together three schools for a series of magical contests form each school a single student will be chosen to complete. If chosen, you stand alone. Trust me when I say, this contest is not for the faint hearted. For now please welcome the lovely ladies of the Beauxbaton Academy.' he said. The doors flew open and dozens of beautiful, or sort of beautiful, women made their way in. 'Now, please meet the proud sons from Durmstrang!' he announced. The great hall doors were pushed open wide again, countless numbers of men came inside, and gave an amazing performance Emily had to admit, to the entire school.

* * *

'Well this is going to be an interesting year.' Angelina said, as her, Emily, Katie and Alicia walked into their dorm room.  
'Oh yeah.' Alicia said.  
'Big time.' Katie said, plopping onto her bed.  
'Especially for you, little miss Weasley.' Angelina teased. 'You alright?' she asked, noticing Emily was just laying there on her bed. 'Em?'  
'I'm stuck Ange.' she mumbled.  
'Uh oh.' Katie said.  
'What's wrong?' Angelina asked.  
'I don't know if Dumbledore will be okay with Fred and I.' she said.  
'Have you talked to Fred about it?' she asked.  
'I'm going to later tonight.' Emily said.  
'Well I'm sure he will, he's like your dad, he'll understand.' Angelina relaxed. Emily sat up.  
'He's not my dad.' she said in an angry tone.  
'I know he isn't, I just said he's _like_ your dad.'  
'And I doubt he'll be okay with it. You don't know him like I do...' Emily said.  
'You never know unless you try.' Angelina said. Emily was quiet for a moment, then looked at her watch. She got up and headed to the door.  
'Where are you going? It's just past curfew.' Angelina asked.  
'I know, I'll be back in about an hour or so.' she said and left.

She walked down to the kitchen, tickled the pear, and rushed into the kitchen.  
'Well it's about time.' Fred said as he leaned in t kiss her, Emily stopped him.  
'This is important.' she said, trying to get Fred to act serious for a moment.  
'Okay what is it we need to talk about?' he asked as they sat down.  
'It's, well um-' Emily mumbled.  
'Em.' he stopped her.  
'It's Dumbledore, and Snape, and Flitwick, and McGonagall.' she said.  
'You told them?' he asked with wide eyes.  
'No, not yet at least. I don't know _how_ to, and honestly, if I told him he wouldn't approve.'  
'How do you know that for sure?' Emily sighed.  
'Trust me Fred, I know him a little more than you do.' she said.  
'Why wouldn't he? Is it because I'm a Weasley?' he asked frustrated. Emily looked confused, and a little taken aback with hat accusation.  
'What? No, no. Fred, I like you _because _you're a Weasley. trust me when I tell you that that isn't the reason.' she said assuring him.  
'Then what is?' Emily opened her mouth to speak for a moment, but closed it to think. She didn't think _"Because I can tell the future."_ or _"it's the fact that none of this is real, and you're just a fictional character."_ was a legitimate reason.  
'It's me. He's not facing the fact that I'm not that little thirteen year old girl from third year anymore. I'm changing.' she said simply.  
'So what do you want to do?' he asked.  
'I don't know.' she said. Fred held her hand.  
'Well I'll do whatever we need to do to keep us together, and no one, not even Dumbledore, has the magic to separate this.' he said. Emily kissed him, she didn't know why, but he _always_ knew what to say to make her feel better.

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	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24:**

About a week went by and Emily and Fred decided that they wouldn't tell Dumbledore about their relationship just yet. They decided to wait and see where it went. If it was too much to keep from him, they'd do it together. They also told their friends not to mention it in front of any of the teachers as well, just in case. The whole school crowded into the great hall on Friday night. They gathered around the goblet to see who would be the Triwizard champions.  
'Now, the moment you've all been waiting for!' Dumbledore announced as the students sat down. 'The Champion selection!' He dimmed the lights in the hall, the only light coming from the Goblet of Fire. He held out his hand to the goblet and the flames grew bigger and more rapid. The flames turned a bright red, and a piece of paper bolted out of the fire and into the air. It landed in Dumbledore's hands. 'The Champion of Beauxbaton Academy will be Fleur Delacour!' he announced. The Beauxbaton girls cheered and Fleur rose and walked into the trophy room. The flames turned red again, and another piece of paper zoomed out and landed into his hand. 'The Champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum!' Krum rose and walked into the trophy room with applause following after him. The flames rose for a third time and shot out the last champions name. 'The Champion for Hogwarts will be Cedric Diggory!' The hall burst into applause as he stood up and walked into the trophy room.

'Excellent! We now have our three champions! But in the end, only one will go down in history. Only one will hold this chalice of champions, the Triwizard Cup!' The cup was shown to the entire school, it was beautiful, almost enchanting to look at. Snape had a curious expression on his face as everyone watched the cup, Dumbledore sun around to look at the goblet. It rose once again! A name was shot out of the top and landed into Dumbledore's hand. 'Harry Potter.' he mumbled. Gasps could be heard from every direction. 'Harry Potter!' he shouted.  
'Harry go! Go!' Hermione pushed him out to face the headmaster. Harry walked between everyone and into the trophy room. Soon, everyone was dismissed back to their dormitories. Emily ran towards the trophy room before the teachers did and made her way down there. She saw a confused Harry, along with a confused looking bunch of champions. She could hear the furious sounds of the multiple teachers and headmasters already coming down the stairs. She went up to Harry.  
'Don't worry about it, whatever happens, don't admit to putting your name in alright?' she asked holding him by the shoulders.  
'Harry!' Dumbledore shouted rushing towards him.  
'Trust me.' Emily said quickly, as Dumbledore pushed her aside.  
'Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?' Harry shook his head. 'Did you have one of the older students do it for you?' he asked again.  
'No sir!' he assured him.  
'You're absolutely sure?' he asked again.  
'Yes sir.' Harry said and looked over at Emily. Dumbledore looked in Harry's direction. Emily didn't respond.  
'Does he know?' he asked, Emily shook her head.  
'Well of course he is lying!' Madame Maxime shouted, knocking a lantern out of the way to make way for her.  
'The devil he is!' Moody shouted. 'The Goblet of Fire is an exceptionally powerful object, only an exceptionally powerful confundus charm could have hoodwinked it! Magic _way_ beyond the magic of a _fourth _year!'  
'It's up to you Minister, what shall we do?' Dumbledore asked.  
'The rules are absolute. The Goblet of Fire has a magical contract that cannot be broken. Mr. Potter has no choice, he is, as of tonight, a Triwizard Champion.' Fudge said. Emily pulled Dumbledore aside for a moment.  
'Sir, you cannot let Harry compete! He could die.' she said.  
'You once told me that it is crucial that Harry competes.' he said.  
'Well yes but-'  
'Then there is no question about it, he must do it. But I am counting on you to help him through it.' he said. Emily nodded. 'Do whatever is necessary to help him succeed.' Dumbledore went back to the group.

Emily made her way back to the common room with a quiet Harry by her side.  
'Scared?' she asked.  
'A little.' he mumbled.  
'Harry it's going to be alright.'  
'Really? And how do you know that?' he asked in an obnoxious tone. 'Sorry, I guess I'm just a little high strung.' he said.  
'It's okay.' she said as they climbed the stair case to the common room.  
'Emily?'  
'Mhm?'  
'What was it that Dumbledore was talking about, when he asked me if I knew?' he asked. Emily stopped instantly on her way up the stairs and turned to look at him.  
'What are you talking about?' she asked.  
'In the trophy room, just then. I don't know if it is any of my business.' he said.  
'It _isn't _any of your business.' she shot back a little annoyed. 'And if it was, you'd know.' she continued to walk up the stairs and into the common room, leaving a very confused Harry out in the dark.

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	25. Chapter 25

**Did chapter 24 work for all of you? Because a few of you've PM'd me and said the "URL is outdated." If you haven't gotten a chance to read it, just leave ma a message and I'll Pm the chapter to you. And if you just don't want to read it, that's okay because it was rather small and uneventful. Now here's chapter 25 :D**

* * *

'Good morning love.' Fred said as he came down the stair case in the common room.  
'Good morning.' she smiled.  
'Me and George were going to make a quick run down to Honeydukes today, would you care to join us?" he asked.  
'I'd love to, but' her smile went away. 'I promised Neville I'd help him look for water plants.' she said shivering.  
'That's disgusting.' he stated. 'Why on earth would you agree to do that?'  
'I don't know, he just seems like he doesn't have many friends and saying no was kind of mean.'  
'Well _try_ to enjoy yourself.' he said and kissed her cheek as he left the common room.  
'You too, don't have too much fun.' she said.  
'Without you? Never.'

Emily and Neville were walking out of the castle and towards the black lake in the cold, icy morning.  
'Did you know that when you poke a Mimbulus Mimbletonia, the entire thing explodes to protect it's self from enemies.' he said.  
'That is maybe one of the most revolting things I have ever heard.' Emily said, tucking her nose into her jacket to keep warm.  
'It may be gross, but it's extremely affective.' Emily laughed.  
'I bet, say Neville, why did we have to wake up _so_ early on a Saturday to come down here?' she asked.  
'Because the plants we're looking for only show up around this time of day and year.' he said. Just then the two saw Harry approach them.  
'Hi guys.' he said, doing the same thing as Emily.  
'Oh I forgot, I asked Harry to come along as well.' Neville said.  
'The more the merrier.' Emily smiled. The three of them got down to the lake. Emily really _didn't_ want to put her feet in the water, but of course she did. Harry sat against the tree trunk near them.  
'Magical Water plants of Highland?' Harry asked as he looked at Neville's book.  
'Moody gave it to me that day we had tea.'  
'Ron why can't you go ask him yourself?' they heard Hermione say as she approached with Ginny and Ron.  
'Oh god, I think I'm going to head back up to the castle, good luck Harry.' she said getting out of the water. 'Bye Neville.' Neville waved goodbye. She heard them argue as she walked back up to the castle.

She heard a branch break behind her, the sound of them all arguing had long passed as she was making her way back up to the castle.  
'Hello?' she asked as she looked behind her. There was no one there. 'You're losing it Em.' she said to herself.' She turned back around to see none other than Professor Moody standing in front of her. She jumped back, she didn't hear him walking by at all. His eye was looking at her face, then rolling back to his head and around them. Emily was confused.  
'Good morning miss Ryan, what is a student such as yourself doing in a forest alone?' he asked.  
'Nothing sir.' she said as she walked around him. 'Just heading back to the castle.' she swallowed hard as she kept on walking.  
'That's professor to you missy.' he said in anger. Why _was _he always so angry. She stopped and turned back around.  
'Actually, it's not.' she said as she walked back up to him. 'I think we _both_ know you _aren't_ a professor.' she said.  
'That's madness.' he said.  
'We'll just go to Dumbledore, I have no doubt that he won't believe me' she asked.  
'Neither do I, he already told me about _you._' he said. Emily swallowed the lump in her throat. She ran from Moody up to the castle. she ran to Dumbledore completely furious ad burst into his office with the door slamming behind her.

'Really? You told Moody about me.' she asked.  
'Alastor Moody is a dear friend of mine, an auror.' he said. 'Not telling him would have been a foolish mistake.'  
'No,_ telling_ _him_ was a foolish mistake. Did it ever occur to you that Moody wasn't who he seemed? He's not the man you think he is. He's a death eater.'  
'Nonsense.'  
'Barty Crouch Jr.' she said. Dumbledore didn't respond. 'What am I to do now? He knows who I am!'  
'I do not believe that he is a death eater, any dark magic would have been cleansed from him when he came to Hogwarts.'  
'So you're saying that you don't believe me?' she asked, really starting to feel pissed off now.  
'No, given that you have disobeyed my orders more than once and tried to keep numerous secrets from me, I don't believe you.' he said. Emily was silent. 'Yes, I do know.'  
'I had a feeling you might have.' she mumbled.  
'I told you not to do anything to change fate.' he said walking up to her from his desk.  
'And I haven't'  
'ah, but you have' he began. 'Mr. Weasley, if I remember, was supposed to die during the war yes?' she nodded. 'Now how would that work if he had you to hold onto.' he asked.  
'He _doesn't_ have to die.' she said. 'I can save him.'  
'Then who will die in his place, Harry? Anyone could take his place, someone will have to die Emily.' he said.  
'I refuse to believe that.' she sneered.  
'You must not continue this relationship if you want this story to continue on it's path.' he said as he walked back up to his desk.  
'But sir! I'm sixteen now, I think I'm more than capable of making my own decisions.' she said.  
'Seeing as the decisions that you have made clearly aren't working, you aren't.' he said and dismissed her.

Emily got back to the common room that night and walked furiously through the portrait hole. She couldn't believe Dumbledore was being so stubborn.  
'Hey Em-'  
'What?' She asked.  
'okay okay, never mind, someone's a little grumpy.' George said.  
'I'm just tired, sorry George.' she said.  
'Are you alright love?' Fred asked getting up off the couch.  
'Yeah I'm fine, it's just Dumbledore, he's being a twat.' she said.  
'You told him?' he asked with wide eyes.  
'Well I wasn't going to, I was talking to him about something else, then I found out that he already knew.' she said.  
'And what'd he say?' Fred asked walking over to her. Emily was quiet for a moment, Fred noticed she must have been a little uncomfortable, being in front of everyone downstairs so he brought her up to his room. 'What he say?'  
'He didn't say anything, he was fine with it.' she lied.  
'Really?' he asked. Emily nodded. 'Well than,' he put his arms around her and kissed her. 'It seems like we can do this in public now.' he smiled. Emily laughed, she grabbed Fred and brought him closer to her, kissing him deeper. 'Well, some things in public.' he said in between kisses. He fell backwards onto his bed with Emily with him.

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	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26:**

Harry completed the first task with flying colors, though he did end up with a few cuts and bruises. Emily healed those up no problem, thanks to a potion book she got from Snape, _how to heal wizardry wounds._ It was the first snowfall of the year, and McGonagall had the entire house in the music room.  
'I wonder why we're here.' Angelina asked as they all got seated. Emily saw Filch carrying in a rather large music player.  
'Dance class, for the Yule ball.' she said looking at Filch.  
'How would you know?'  
'Um duh, Dumbledore.' she laughed. He brought the music player into the middle of the room and began to fiddle with it. McGonagall began to speak.  
'The Yule ball has been a tradition during the Triwizard tournament, since its inception. On Christmas eve, we and our guests gather in the great hall for some well mannered frivolity. As representatives of the host school I expect each and every one of you to put your best foot forward, and I mean that literally because the Yule ball is indeed; a dance.' The entire room broke out in whispers, gasps and groans. 'Silence! I will not have you all behaving like a babbling, bumbling, band of baboons. Inside every girl, a swan is longing to burst out and come forth.' she said.

Ron made an inappropriate remark and had to dance with McGonagall for the rest of class. They were all told to partner up, so Emily partnered up with Fred. The two of them were trying keep up with McGonagall's instructions. '1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3- Miss Ryan, keep your chin up.' she instructed, raising her chin so she was standing straight. Fred laughed at her. 'Mr. Weasley, you must be leading.' she said. Emily laughed at him.  
'Yeah, c'mon Fred, don't make me do all the work.' Emily said.  
'Mr. Weasley, again from the top.' she said walking off and finding Ron. Fred held her closer as they danced.  
'The ball's in two weeks.' he suddenly said.  
'Is it?' Emily asked.  
'Indeed it is.' she said.  
'Em, would you care to accompany me to the ball?' he asked. Emily smiled, she thought it was cute how Fred was asking, he reminded her of a school boy, asking a girl to prom.  
'Of course Fred, I'd love to.' she kissed him.  
'Miss Ryan and mister Weasley, distance if you please.' McGonagall called, making the two jump back.

* * *

The day of the ball had finally arrived and Emily, Angelina, Katie and Alicia were all in the younger girls dormitories, helping them get ready for the night. Emily was currently doing Hermione's hair.  
'Emily?' she asked.  
'Hmm?'  
'Are you happy?' she asked. Emily paused and looked at Hermione through the mirror.  
'What are you talking about?' Emily asked.  
'It's just- I see you, _everyday_, you seem a bit off like something is bothering you.' Emily looked down at Hermione's hair.  
'I don't know what you're going on about, but I'm perfectly fine.' she said, she looked at Hermione once more and smiled. Hermione didn't smile back, instead she turned around and looked up at Emily.  
'No; you're not. I _know_ when you're upset, what's bothering you?' Emily just stared at Hermione. 'You have to say something Emily, I'm not going to leave you alone. Is it Fred.'  
'No, of course not.' Emily said quickly. 'He makes me happy.'  
'Then what? You seem miserable.'  
'Not with him.' she cleared up. She let out a long sigh. 'It's Dumbledore.'  
'What's wrong with him? Isn't he like a father to you?'  
'Yes but, it's _really _complicated. He doesn't listen to a word I say, he doesn't trust me, and he _doesn't_ approve of Fred.' she said.  
'Why not? He's perfect for you.' Hermione said. 'If it matters in the slightest Emily, when you're with Fred, you seem happy, both of you do. Honestly I think you two were made for each other.' Hermione said turning around and looking back into the mirror. 'It's the way I wish I could look with someone.' she said.  
'Hermione, Viktor is a wonderful man, but honestly he doesn't seem like he's what you're looking for.' Emily said.  
'I've been thinking the same thing actually.' she said. Emily cleared her throat.  
'Well, why don't we finish up here so we can enjoy a memorable night.' Emily smiled, trying to be the optimistic one there. Hermione smiled as Emily went back to doing her hair.

'Emily do hurry up and get dressed!' Angelina shouted from down in the common room.  
'I'll be down when I'm done, just go on without me. Tell Fred I'm running just a little late!' she shouted back from her room. She was so caught up with helping Hermione that she lost track of time and hurried to get her dress on. She finally finished and looked into the mirror. She was wearing a Caribbean blue, long, flowing gown with shimmering pearls trailing along the hem. Her hair was done up in an elegant, wavy, subdued chignon. Emily rushed down the stairs and out the portrait hole, where she bumped into Snape. 'Oh, Severus. What can I do for you this evening?' she asked in a dreamy tone. She was feeling the Christmas spirit, so she actually decided to _listen_ to what he had to say.  
'Miss Ryan, it seems Dumbledore would like to see you in his office before you make your way to the ball. He said it was urgent.' he said.  
'Um, alright why not.' she smiled and made her way towards his office. She knocked on the door.  
Come in, ah yes Miss Ryan.' he said.  
'Sir, I was told this is urgent, can it not wait until after the party?' she asked.  
'I'm afraid not.' he said. Emily came further into the room.  
'What's wrong, what has happened?' she asked curiously.  
'I've heard from professor McGonagall that she found you and mister Weasley snogging during dance class.' he said. Emily laughed.  
'Is this what this is about?' she asked.  
'I already told you that it can't continue.' he said.  
'Why not? I'm happy, why can't you just let me have this _one_.' she asked with teary eyes. Dumbledore headed to the door.  
'Dear, I want you to know that I am _only_ doing this to protect, not just you, but everyone else for that matter.' he said as he left. 'I'm sorry, and that is my final word.' he said as he closed the door.

Emily let out a long sigh. There was _no_ way she couldn't tell Fred about this. If only things weren't so complicated. She walked towards the door and pulled it open. Only, it didn't open. She tried again, and again, and _again_.  
'Sneaky old man.' she said to herself. She reached under her dress for her wand. 'That man! How did he know?' she said out loud. It seemed as if he had taken her wand from her as he walked out. Some days, she just hated magic. Emily kept trying to open the door. She took off her shoes and tried to pry it open. After about twenty minutes of trying to find an exit she gave up. He had every door locked. What was he trying to accomplish? Emily knew that even if she didn't show up at the ball, Fred wouldn't be angry at her. She had no idea how she would explain it, but he wouldn't be mad, would he? 'No Emily, calm down.' she assured herself. She took a seat at Dumbledore's desk with her feet at her chest. 'Merry Christmas Emily.' she said as she laid he chin on her knees.

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	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27:**

The clock reached midnight and Emily woke up to the sound of different clocks around the room going off. She sat up in Dumbledore's chair and cleared her head. She slowly got up and walked over to the door, like she had assumed, it was unlocked now. The ball was over now so there was no point heading down there so she headed up to the common room with her shoes in her hand. She got to the portrait and said the password.  
'Balderdash.' she mumbled.  
'Looks like someone had a rough night.' the fat lady sneered.  
'Balder-dash.' she said again.  
'Alright alright, in you go.' the lady said as she opened the door. Emily walked through the portrait hole and into an empty common room. She walked right on through to the stairs.  
'Emily?' she froze before heading up the stairs. She turned around and, she barely made out Fred.  
'Fred.' she said with a dry throat. She didn't look happy at all. 'Why are you up? You should be asleep.'  
'I couldn't sleep without knowing you were okay.' he said. Emily walked passed him to the couch. The only light in the room was coming from the fire. She dropped her heels onto the arm chair and sat down on the couch.  
'I'm fine.' she choked.  
'Em, what happened? Why weren't you there?' he asked. He didn't seem mad, just a little broken.

'It's a long story.' she sighed. Fred sat down beside her. 'You should just go to sleep.' she said.  
'Em, look at me, what's wrong?' Emily didn't want to tell him. 'What aren't you telling me?' he asked. 'Something's bothering you love.'  
'Fred I can't-' she mumbled as she pulled away. 'Fred I can't do this anymore.'  
'Do what?'  
'Fred there are things I _wish_ I could tell you.' she began. 'I haven't been completely honest with you and I'm sorry.' she said.  
'Emily.' she knew he knew where she was going with this. He pulled her closer.  
'Fred who are we kidding? There's nothing here if we don't have trust.'  
'But I do trust you.'  
'And I trust you; but you shouldn't trust me. I just think you deserve someone who can tell you everything about them.' she said. 'And that clearly isn't me.' She got up and slowly got her shoes and walked towards the stairs.  
'Em.' he stopped her by the arm. 'I don't care if it's too soon, but I love you, I have since the moment I first saw you, and I'm _not_ going to let you go.'  
'Fred, I'm sorry. One day, you'll understand that.' she said. She kissed him one last time. Knowing that when she woke up tomorrow, she wouldn't be able to. She could feel the want in him, he really didn't want to let her go, and neither did she. She pulled back and rested her forehead on his. 'But I'm not going anywhere, not any time soon.'  
'I really do love you.' he whispered, she tried to smile, though now _she_ was the one feeling broken. With that, she headed up the stairs to her room.

'There you are!' Angelina shouted, putting her arms around her. 'You didn't show up to the ball, I was wondering if something happened to you. You should really talk to Fred, he looked miserable all night.'  
'I did.' she choked. Angelina noticed her sad face.  
'What happened?' she asked.  
'I broke it off with Fred.' she mumbled.  
'What, are you feeling alright?' she asked, putting her hand on Emily's forehead.  
'No Ange, I'm not feeling alright. My heart's just been broken.' she began to cry.  
'Aw!' Was all Angelina said. She didn't know what she would do without Angelina by her side, she was amazing.

Emily was quiet for most of classes for the next few days. She didn't interact with the twins very much, only when George tried to spark up some conversation to make things less awkward, which kind of made things even more awkward. She was sitting in the library with Harry, Ron and Hermione trying to help Harry get ready for the second task, which would take place the next day. It's been _hours_.  
Harry tell me again.' Hermione said pacing around in the library. Harry sighed into his book.  
Come seek us where our voices sounds.' Harry repeated for the hundredth time.  
'The black lake, that's obvious.' she said waking Ron up and handing him the golden egg, which he so happily tossed to Emily.  
'An hour long you'll have to look.'  
'That's obvious as well.' Emily said.  
'Though potentially problematic.' Hermione murmured.  
'Potentially problematic? Hermione when was the last time you held your breath under water for an hour?' Harry asked.  
'Look, we can do this, the four of us can figure it out.' she assured him.  
'I'm sorry, I hate to break up the little skull session but professor McGonagall would like to see you in her office.' Moody said coming around the corner. 'Not you two, only Granger and Weasley.'  
'But sir the second task is just hours away' Hermione insisted.  
'Exactly, I assume Potter is well prepared and do for a good night sleep.' he said. The two of them left to McGonagall. 'Longbottom!' Moody shouted, Neville coming around the corner. 'Help Potter put his books back.'

'You know, if you're interested in plants you'd be better off with the Guide to Herbology.' Neville said, taking Harry's books.  
'No offence Neville, but I really don't care about plants.' Harry said. 'Now if there is anything that can help me breathe underwater for an hour or so, I'd love to hear it.' he said.  
'Neville, didn't you tell me about something like that a few weeks ago? Some sort of weed?'  
'Gilly weed?'  
'That's the one!' Emily said. 'We're going to need that, lots and lots of that...'

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	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28:**

It was news heard among the entire school that Barty Crouch Sr. had been murdered, and his body found in the forest. No one knows how it happened, well apart from Emily who was _still_ trying to convince Dumbledore that Moody was Barty Crouch Jr. He's been blinded by how good of a friend Alastor was to him, that he didn't even consider the possibility. Emily was walking down the hallway one night in search of Severus. It was pretty late at night. She rushed down the long, dark hallway that was covered in portraits and dust. There was an old, dark rug that stretched down the entire length of the hall. She headed to Snape's potion supply closet. She could see that the door was open and the light was on as she made her way there.  
'Don't lie to me. Gillyweed-' she heard Severus speak before interrupting.

'I'm sorry sir, may I have a word?' she asked.  
'Very well, Potter you are dismissed.' he said as he returned the Veritaserum to its rightful place. Harry left, Emily peered down the hallway until he was out of sight.  
'What is it miss Ryan, this better be urgent.' he scowled.  
'Sir, I have no one else to tell this to. Dumbledore won't believe me about Alastor being an imposter. Sir, I have proof that he is _not _who he says he is-' he stopped her talking by putting his hand up and motioning her to stop talking.  
'What evidence do you have?' he asked.  
'Well...I don't _actually_ have evidence but-'  
'Well then there is no way to tell now is there.' he said.  
'Would you _stop_ cutting me off and let me explain?' she said, tired of the way he treated her. Snape rose his eyebrow. 'Harry isn't the one who is stealing from your supply room. You said yourself that the ingredients missing are used to make polyjuice potion. Alastor has a flask that he drinks out of _constantly_. I believe that that flask is full of polyjuice potion.' she said. Snape didn't say anything, he just stared at her with no expression, she swore, he resembled a robot of no emotion at times. He pushed her out of the room.  
'Go to your house miss Ryan, it's well past curfew.' he said.  
'Please sir! Just try to cons-' he slammed the door. She took a long sigh and made her way back to the common room.

* * *

The day of the third and final Triwizard tournament task had finally arrived. The entire school, along with Durmstrang and Beauxbaton, had filed into the stands around the giant maze where the champions would go and search for the cup. Emily was making her way into the stands.  
'Emily! Emily!' she heard someone call her name. It came from Hermione, who was sitting with Ron and the rest of her family. 'Emily come join us would you.' Hermione shouted. Emily smiled and made her way over to them. Emily hugged Hermione. 'Who you thinks' going to win?' She asked.  
'Harry, of course.' Emily said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She took a seat between Hermione and Fred, it was rather quiet between the two of them, ever since they broke up on Christmas eve. The champions began to file in. First came Cedric, then Fleur, Krum, and then Harry along with Dumbledore. He whispered something to Harry, who went to go stand beside Moody. Dumbledore got up to the microphone and began to talk.

'Silence!' He began. 'Today professor Moody had placed the Triwizard cup deep within the maze, and only _he_ knows its exact position. Now as mister Diggory, and mister Potter tied for first position, they will both be the first ones to enter the maze. Following will be Krum, then Miss Delacour.' Everyone burst out in applause. 'The first one to touch the cup will be the winner! If a contestant is to withdraw from the task, they will send out a red spark.' he finished. He gathered the champions to give them one final word before he sent the four of them into the maze, and declaring the final task has begun.

It wasn't long until the music died down, and the only thing you could hear around the stands were little murmurs of people talking to one another. Emily sat with her hands in her lap, and her knee quickly bouncing up and down as her attention fell to the maze. Hands slowly covered her own and she looked down. Fred stopped her from shaking.  
'Don't worry, they'll all be fine.' he whispered.  
'How do you know that for sure?' she asked. Fred slowly removed his hands, and Emily felt cold again. She missed being able to be held by him. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours and still, they were all in the maze. Only one spark was sent into the air, showing the Fleur had indeed given up. The crowd was getting restless and few got up and left, convinced that nothing was going to happen. The sky turned dark and the teachers had lit the lanterns that hung around the stands. Suddenly, two people appeared in the middle of the grass.

Harry was cradled around Cedric's dead body, though no one really seemed to notice. The crowd burst into cheers yet again, happy that their school champions had returned. Numerous teachers began to crowd around them to see what had happened.  
'He's back, He's back, Voldemort is back! Cedric asked me to bring his body back, I couldn't leave him!' Harry cried. Everyone was in pure shock from what had just happened.  
'Let me through!' Amos Diggory shouted, running through the stands to get to his sons corpse. He fell down to his knees when he saw what had happened. Emily rushed through the crowd.  
'Emily, Emily!' Hermione chased after her. 'Where're you going?' She didn't answer, she just ran towards them. When she got there, the group had slowly began to disperse. Dumbledore had instructed Arthur and Hagrid to take Cedric's body to the hospital wing. Where they would prepare his body for a funeral.

'Harry, Harry?' Dumbledore called. 'Has anyone seen him?' Emily caught up to him, as he was leaving the scene.  
'Sir!' she called. 'Alastor has him, he took Harry! He's going to hurt him if you don't find him!' she cried.  
'Nonsense.' he said as he continued up to the castle.  
'Headmaster.' Snape said, making Dumbledore turn to him. 'I would listen to that girl, she has a very convincing theory about the man.' he said. Emily turned around to look at him confused.  
'I-I do?' she asked.  
'Indeed. Sir, I insist we check his office.' he said.  
'Very well, if you presume she's right, so will I.' he said. Severus, McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Emily all headed up to Moody's office.

_'Expelliarmus' _Shouted Dumbledore, as he crashed into Moody's office, breaking through the door. He rushed in and caught Moody, who was pushed against the door.  
'Harry are you alright?' Emily asked as she entered, he nodded.  
Severus!' Dumbledore called. Snape dropped a potion into Alastor's mouth. 'Are you Alastor Moody?' he asked.  
'No.' Moody stated.  
'Is he in this room?' Dumbledore asked. He didn't respond. 'Is he in this room?' Dumbledore asked again. He looked straight at a chest in the corner of the room. 'Harry get away from there.' Dumbledore burst open the chest. Moody, with no animatronic eye, or metal leg, was sitting at the bottom. 'Alright down there old friend?' Dumbledore called.  
'I'm sorry Albus!' Moody called from the bottom of the chest.  
'Wait, that's Moody, than who's-' Harry began as he looked over to the imposter. Snape smelled Moody's flask.  
'Polyjuice potion.' The imposter began to change forms. He changed into, none other, than Barty Crouch Jr. himself.  
'Well well well, miss Ryan was right all along.' Severus said.

'You know what this means, don't you?' Barty asked, he sounded psychotic. 'He's back, Lord Voldemort has returned.'  
'I'm sorry sir, I couldn't help it!' Harry cried, holding onto the cut Pettigrew had made.  
'Send an owl to Azkaban, I think they'll find that they're missing a prisoner.' Dumbledore said.  
'I'll be welcomed back like a hero!' he shouted. 'Not to mention, Emily's little secret that could be _more _than enough for the Dark Lord to use as a weapon!' he said. Emily swallowed the lump in her throat.  
'Perhaps, but personally I've never had much time for heroes.' Dumbledore said as he ushered Harry out of the room, Emily following.

* * *

It was the last day of school and everyone was saying their goodbyes to the visiting schools, along with their own friends. Emily couldn't help but think about what Barty Crouch said to her, how Voldemort may get his hands on her, and _if_ he did, she'd be in danger. She didn't blame Dumbledore for telling him her secret, after all, he thought of Alastor as his old friend. She wasn't mad when he told Lupin, she was actually okay with that.  
'Caught up in those thoughts again?' came a voice. Emily was leaning against the door to the entrance hall, watching people say their goodbyes. She turned around to see Fred.  
'Hey.' she sighed, as she continued t look at the other students.  
'You going to be alright this summer?' he asked.  
'Ya, I'll be fine, Fred we don't have to do th-'  
'Just listen then.' he said. 'I _am_ going to miss you this summer. a day won't go by where I won't think about you.' he said. Emily blushed. Angelina was heading in their direction. 'I'm not giving up on you, Ryan.' he whispered as he passed her, to join his brothers.  
'What was that about?' Angelina asked.  
'Nothing, just saying goodbye.' she said.  
'Well, don't forget to write me this summer alright?' Angelina hugged Emily.  
'Wouldn't dream of it.'  
'Good, have a great summer.' she waved and strolled off with her trunk.

The school was empty about an hour later, she slowly headed up to Dumbledore's office and knocked on the door.  
'Ah Emily, just the person I wanted to see. This is the real Alastor Moody.' he introduced. Emily shook his hand.  
'Still a bit intimidating.' she joked.  
'You'll get used to it lass.' he said.  
'It is nice to finally meet you.'  
'I hope you don't mind, but I've told him about your situation. The more people who're in the order who know, the better.' Dumbledore said.  
'Now _that_ I actually agree with.' Emily smiled.  
'I'm afraid I must be going now, hope to see you in the near future dear.' Moody said, as he left. Emily stood there in front of Dumbledore.  
'Um sir, I came up here to apologize for everything this year. I'm sorry I went behind your back, and I'm sorry I lied to you.' she said. 'It won't happen again.' Dumbledore sighed.  
'I must say I have to apologize for what I have done this year as well. I did go to drastic measures to keep things in line, even though _I _didn't listen to _you._' he said. Emily smiled and headed up to her room, _finally_, the year was over.

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	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29:**

Emily was sitting in an empty great hall one hot, late afternoon. She was munching on some brownies as she was reviewing her school notes. Dumbledore had told her that he preferred if she stayed in the castle this summer, to keep safe. She didn't mind him asking this of her, she was still terrified thinking about how Voldemort could soon know her secret. "It's levi_o_sa, not levio_sa._' she smirked to herself as she read that spell. She saw Snape approach her as she was reading. She took her feet off the table and cleaned her hands.

'Afternoon Severus, how can I help you?' she asked.  
'The headmaster wishes to see you.' he said.  
'He _wishes_ to see me, well, wish granted.' she smiled, got up, and followed him. 'You wanted to see me sir?' she asked as she came into the office. He was behind his desk, mixing something in a cauldron.  
'Ah yes, Emily, come here.' he said.  
'Oh god, what is that smell?' she asked, with a disgusted look on her face, covering her nose.  
'Rotting ork skin.' he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.  
'Oh, lovely.' she coughed. 'And why may I ask do you have that?'  
'A simple potion I'm brewing is all.' he said. 'Anyways, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about.' he left the cauldron and went to his desk. 'I have work I need to have done at the ministry this summer, and I'm afraid you may have to tag along.'  
'Tag along? Why?' she fell into the chair in front of his desk.  
'Well, you're going to stay at twelve Grimmauld Place.'  
'Headquarters?'  
'Precisely.' he nodded. 'I'm going to drop you off as soon as I finish up at the ministry. You'll be staying with Professor Lupin, Sirius, Arthur, Molly, Tonks, Moody, the rest of the Weasley family, and a few others.' he said. 'In good, safe hands.'  
'Alright.' she nodded.  
'Good, we'll leave first thing tomorrow morning.'

She headed t her room to pack her basic necessities, clothes, toothbrush, toiletries, and a few other things when she heard a knock come from the door. She walked over and opened it.  
'Severus, how lovely of you to stop by' she said. He came bursting into the room. 'Please, come in?' she closed the door.  
'It has come to my attention that you will be staying with the order for the final month of summer.; he said, Emily nodded. He pulled out a book from under his cloak and handed it to her. She took it.  
'What's this? "_Advanced Potion Making_?" Why give this to me?'  
'You will be missing your classes this summer so you will need to read ahead.  
'Wait a minute, I finished catching up a _long_ time ago.' she opened the book. 'Severus I can't take this. It's _your_ book.'  
'You've proven worthy of advanced potion making, I thought you may need my notes for next terms classes.' he said.  
'Thank you.' she said, honored he was giving her his potion book, though she knew she couldn't keep it, Harry would have to find it in his sixth year. She didn't mention that to him, quite just yet.  
'Ehm, well, enjoy the rest of vacation Ryan.' he said as he fled the room. He _was_ rather strange.

* * *

'Are you _sure_ I'm allowed at the ministry sir?' Emily asked as Dumbledore passed her the Floo powder.  
'Yes I'm one hundred percent sure, now don't forget to speak very clearly.' he said. Emily took a handful of powder.  
'Ministry of Magic.' she said and dropped the powder. She emerged out of a fireplace, she stood there for a moment, it only took seconds until Dumbledore showed up himself.  
'This way dear.' he said, as he ushered her through the atrium. They headed into an elevator, and held onto the bars at the top so they didn't fall down.  
'Albus what are we doing here anyways?' she asked.  
'I need a quick word with Fudge and some documents need signing.' he said. They soon stepped out of the elevator an into a small, dark brown, narrow hallway. The sounds of typewriters could be heard around them. 'Wait out here dear.' he said as they neared an office door.  
'Alright.' she mumbled as she took a seat.

She heard bits of chatter from inside the room, but no loud arguing thank goodness. Dumbledore emerged out of the room with Fudge.  
'Well it was nice to see you headmaster.' Fudge commented, shaking his hand. Emily rose as they came out.  
'As to you as well minister.' He lightly pulled Emily to his side. 'I almost forgot, this is Emily Ryan.' he introduced.  
'This is the girl?' fudge asked.  
'Indeed.'  
'Well it's nice to finally meet you, I've heard wondrous stories about you my dear.' Fudge said as he shook her hand.  
'It's nice to meet you too.' she said lightly.  
'Going into to your final year, I presume?' he asked, looking at Dumbledore.  
'That she is, only one year left with my I'm afraid.' Dumbledore laughed. 'Well we best be on our way, so many errands to run minister, goodbye.' Dumbledore said, letting Emily pass him by before he entered the elevator once more.  
'Sir?' Emily asked, as they were in the elevator.  
'Hmm?'  
'what _will_ happen once I leave Hogwarts? Where will I go?' she asked.  
'I'm afraid I cannot answer that question, at least, not now.' he mumbled the last part. 'We will have to apparate outside of headquarters, as we aren't able to do so inside the house.' he said.

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	30. Chapter 30

**YAY! chapter 30! That's like, you could read a chapter a day for a whole month! Amazing right? Ya so, um, here you go :3 Oh, and um, for the _next_ chapter, I may or may not update, it's going to be a harder chapter, and a more "intense" one. Oh, and if you can't find the story in T, check M... ;) (I know, I think I kind of gave you a spoiler on what I'm planning to do... v.v)**

* * *

With a loud _pop_, Emily and Dumbledore stood outside of number twelve Grimmauld Place. It was late afternoon as they headed across the street and towards the building. It began to expand and Dumbledore held the door open for Emily as she entered.  
'Thank you.' she said as she walked into the house. She instantly saw the long, dark, dusty hallway.  
'Come on, let's move along.' he said as he closed the door. He took lead and walked down the hallway. Emily slowly followed behind him. She looked up at the ceiling, where a huge, dusty chandelier was. Also, about eight flights of stairs. He knocked on the door, and someone answered.  
'Albus, so wonderful of you to show up.' The voice sounded like Lupin. Emily peeked her head over his shoulder to see, and it was. 'Emily, my you've grown since the last time I saw you.' he smiled.  
'It's nice to see you.' Emily said, she hugged him.  
'Nymphadora, this is Emily Ryan.' Dumbledore introduced.  
'Nice to meet you Emily, my name is _Tonks_.' she corrected him.  
'Try not to call her Nymphadora, she hates it.' came a voice. The two moved away to reveal Sirius.  
'Sirius, nice to see you again.' she smiled as she rushed to hug him. 'So much better now that you're properly cleaned up.'  
'If it wasn't for your advice to go to the shrieking shack, I would've probably been caught by those Dementors.' he said.  
'Well Emily, I see you have a lot of catching up to do, I'll have to leave for now, but I will be back in a few days to see how things are going along.' Dumbledore said.  
'Thank you sir!' she said as he left.  
'You hungry Em?' Sirius asked as they all headed down to the kitchen.  
'Starving.' she said.  
'Good, because Molly's probably got lunch out about now.' he said.  
'The Weasley's are here?' she asked excited.  
'Of course, they've offered to stay here for summer.' he said.  
'Wonderful.'

They got downstairs and the first thing Emily saw was Molly carrying a pot of stew over to the table.  
'Smells good.' she said.  
'Oh Emily dear, you've arrived!' Molly said enthusiastically. She put down the stew and hugged Emily.  
'It's so wonderful of you to stay here as well. We have your room set up and everything, you'll be sleeping with Ginny, just like home.' she said.  
'Alright, no problem. Let me just head up and put my stuff away.' she smelled the stew. 'I'll be right back.' she ran back up to the foyer and up the humongous stairs. She jumped back and held onto the railing as she heard an explosion go off in a room she passed. 'What the hell was that?' she asked out loud.  
'Fred and George, they've been at it all day.' Ginny said as she emerged from her room. 'Nice to see you Em, how's your summer going so far?' she asked.  
'Alright, apposed from this I guess.' she said, inferring to the loud explosion that went off again.  
'Well get used to it, because we're in the next room.' she said as she left and walked down the stairs. The door opened and Emily swung around.  
'Em, we thought we heard you out here.' Fred said as he hugged her, George following.  
'Hi guys.' she laughed. 'Whatcha working on in there?' she asked, raising a curious eyebrow. They pulled her into their room.  
'We're working on the skiving snackboxes.' George said.  
'For the shop?' she asked. The two of them nodded. 'It was awful nice of Harry to give you his winnings.' she said.  
'We owe him.' Fred said. 'So how are you?' he asked.  
'I'm great.' she smiled. George looked between the two.  
'Well, I'm going to head down to lunch, see you two down there.' he said, leaving the room.

Emily turned to Fred as George left.  
'So...' she said, trying to defuse the tension.  
'Hmm?' he asked, watching her as she looked around the room.  
'I don't know.' she blushed. 'Anything interesting happen this summer?' she asked.  
'Not yet.' he smiled. 'What about you? Any adventures we haven't already seen in Hogwarts?' he asked, dropping onto his bed.  
'Not really.' she dropped onto his bed, on her back looking up at the ceiling.  
'You sound depressed.' he stated.  
'Not depressed, just bored.'  
'Well I'm sorry I'm not very entertaining.' he joked. Emily laughed.  
'Let's see, I got to meet the minister of magic today.' she said.  
'Oh, and how did that go?'  
'It went well actually.' she smiled. 'After that, I got sent here.'  
'Why'd you come here?' he asked.  
'Oh, do you not want me here?' she raised her eyebrow again.  
'Well of course I want you here.' he said. 'But why'd Dumbledore bring you here?'  
'Protection?'  
'From?' he asked, wanting her to elaborate. Emily let out a big, long sigh.  
'Nothing, never mind.' she said as she got up and headed to the door.  
'Emily don't do this.' he said.  
'Do what?' she asked as she turned back to face him.  
'Avoid the question, not talk about what's happening. _Something _is going on with you, and it's been going on for a _long_ time.' he said.  
'Well what do you want me to say? Do you think that I'll tell you just to make _you_ happy? Because honestly Fred, I don't think you want to know.' she said.  
'Let me in.' he said as he walked up to her. 'Tell me what's happened.' she looked away, she couldn't look at him. 'Is it something bad?'  
'No.' she said quickly. 'It's not.'  
'Did someone hurt you?'  
'What is this, twenty questions Fred?' she asked as she moved away. 'Can we just not talk about it, please.' she murmured. 'You don't need to know, it's one of the reasons why I couldn't-' she paused as she looked at him. 'Just trust me.'  
'I don't know if I can do that.' he said. It was silent for a few moments, until Fred opened the door and headed down to get lunch. Emily stood there in the room, her head full of regret. _She needed to tell him_.

She got settled in and headed down to lunch.  
'Ah Emily, there you are come on and tuck in.' Molly said, guiding her to her chair beside Ginny.  
'Thanks.' she murmured. both Emily and Fred were quiet during the meal, the two of them didn't say a word, besides one of them asking another to pass something down the table. Even though he was sitting in front of her, her eyes remained on her plate.

* * *

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	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31:**

It's been a few weeks since Emily first got to headquarters. Nothing out of the ordinary has happened really, all she was doing was helping Molly clean the house and cook. When she wasn't doing that she'd be hanging out with Ginny in her room. She's been in London for two weeks and she hasn't seen _any _of London. Well, besides the street outside of her window, which she was looking out of right now. Dumbledore insisted that she stay inside. She agreed with him, what if she went out, and a death eater found her. She didn't know what she'd do. There came a knock on the door.  
'Come in.' she called. Molly peeked her head inside.  
'Evening Emily.' she said.  
'Oh hey, you can come in if you want.' she said, looking back out the window.  
'No that's alright, I just came in to remind you that we're all going to be out tonight. There is a meeting at the ministry we're to attend. Sirius will be here if you need anything.' she said. 'Ginny and the boys will be here too.'  
'alright, no problem.' Emily watched as Molly, Arthur, Kingsley, Lupin and Moody walked across the street and disapparated. She went downstairs to see that dinner was already started, so she decided to take a shower before she ate. She went up into the bathroom and turned on the tap and waited for the water to heat up. It took quite a long time at this house. She undressed and stepped in. while she was showering, she began to smell the most awful smell, it smelled like, rotten eggs and compost. When she looked at her hands, they were neon red. She ran out of the shower and looked in the mirror. There she saw her hair, it was a wet, bright, neon red colour. Her eyes went wide, and she almost fainted right then and there.

Fred, George, Ginny and Ron were sitting in the living room, looking through Sirius' old records He had a lot of neat things in his house.  
'FRED!' they heard a scream. The twins instantly looked at each other with wide eyes.  
'What did you two do?' Ginny asked as she headed towards the stairs. She stopped to hold in a laugh as she saw Emily standing at the foot of the stairs, in her light blue robe. 'Oh my god.' she laughed.  
'It's not funny Gin!' Emily said sternly.  
'You're right.' she calmed herself. 'It's not.' Emily looked around the room for the twins, and spotted them behind the armchair.  
'You two.' she said, ready to explode. She turned the chair around. 'Look what you did!'  
'Well I'm glad we're inspiring you to take a step out of your comfort zone, red _is_ a nice colour.' Fred said smugly.  
'Oh you think you're _so_ funny.' she said. Fred got up and headed to the stairs. 'Where are you going?' she shouted as she followed him.

'Come back, I'm not done with you!' she said as she followed him.  
'Would you relax, it's just a simple potion. we just wanted to see if it worked.' he said as he turned to look at her.  
'So I'm your guinea pig?' she asked.  
'I can fix it!' he said.  
'Well then do it.' she said. Fred let out a long sigh and walked into his room. She could hear him scrambling around for something in his room before the door opened again. He handed her a dark blue bottle.  
'What's this?'  
'You want your hair to go back to normal?' he asked, she nodded. 'Well drink it then.' She released the cap and downed the bottle in a matter of seconds. It was disgusting.  
'Well, how do I look?' she asked.  
'Wet.' he said. She raised her eyebrow. 'And blonde.'  
'Good, and don't think this changes anything. I'm still mad at you.' she said, pointing a finger at him and walking away.  
'Of course you are, you always are.' he said.  
'What's that supposed to mean?' she asked, turning back around.  
'Nothing.'  
'Oh no you meant something.' she crossed her arms.  
'It doesn't matter, forget it.' he said.  
'See how it feels? Not wanting to talk about something. You know you really need to work on giving people space.' she said.  
'Space? If I'm not mistaking, _you're_ the one who came onto me.' he said, Emily laughed.  
'Wow, I can't believe you're bringing _that_ up.' she sneered. 'And let's not forget, you kissed me back.' she poked him.  
'Yeah, after you kissed me. If you had only kept to yourself, we wouldn't be in a mess.'  
'Oh, so it's _my_ fault?' she asked enthusiastically, Fred rolled his eyes. 'And for your information, I can keep to myself. I _chose_ to kiss you, it wasn't a mistake.'  
'Well- wait you don't regret it?' he asked.  
'Well, no of course not. Fred you meant everything to me.' she said. Fred was silent for a few moments. 'What?'  
'I thought that maybe you did, seeing as we're _here _now.' he said. He looked so sad, Emily couldn't help herself. She's been away from him for way too long. She would never admit it, but it's been messing with her too. Everything feels different without him near her. Her laugh, the way she talks, even how food tasted. She missed not being able to talk to Fred when things get tough. And she didn't want to go on like that. It just felt wrong. So she did the only thing she could, she kissed him. It was slow and foreign for the both of them, for so long they hadn't done this. Fred moved one of hid hands to her hair, and the other around her waist to pull her even closer to him. Minutes later they broke for air. Fred pulled her into his room and locked the door. And that was the last anyone saw those two all night.

* * *

Emily slowly began to wake up from her long sleep. She slowly opened her eyes to look at her ceiling, only, it wasn't he ceiling. Arms wrapped around her and she turned to the side.  
'Good morning.' Fred said.  
'Good morning.' she repeated. Her eyes widened at what she remembered from last night. 'Oh my god.' she breathed. She looked beneath the covers, and back up again. She ran out of bed and grabbed her robe. 'Oh no no no no no!' she said to herself. 'I can't believe we did that! I'm such a horrible person.'  
'Em you told me you wouldn't regret it.' he said. She finished wrapping her robe around her and turned to him.  
'I know what I said, and I don't regret it. I just- I- we-we did that, and after everything that's going on.' she said that last part to herself, pacing around the room. He got up and held her in position.  
'Okay em, stop.' he said. 'Whatever's been bothering you, we need to talk about.' Emily looked down, then back up at Fred and blushed. 'What?'  
'Fred you're naked.' she looked away, Fred smirked.  
'And that bothers you?' he asked. she blushed even more.  
'Well, no. Not exactly.' she said and took a deep breath. 'Okay, if I tell you, promise not to get mad?' He nodded. 'Or laugh?' he nodded. 'Or worry?'  
'Em, get on with it.' Fred laughed. She debated whether or not she should tell him, but she _really_ liked him. And it was clear he really liked her. She didn't want to go into this relationship again without changing anything from before.  
'Alright, here goes.' she murmured.

She sat Fred down. 'Fred, I don't exactly know how to tell you this, God it was awkward the last time I told someone.'  
'You've told someone else?' he crossed his arms.  
'Oh don't get your wand in a knot, I only told Dumbledore. Anyways. Um, you remember third year, the first night when we were at the feast?' she asked.  
'Well of course. You wouldn't eat anything and went on about how this was all a dream.' he said. 'I'm glad we brought you to Madame Pomfrey or Merlin knows what would have happened.  
'Ya... well it was true, or it _is_ true.' she said. She could tell Fred was a little bit confused. 'Okay okay, just, um, god this is harder than I thought. Fred when I was talking about all that dream stuff, I wasn't joking. All of this,' she pointed around her, 'is from a story. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Molly, George, you. All from a story. I'm from a different time.'  
'So like, the future?' he asked, still confused.  
'No Fred! Not the future! Just, the last thing I remember from before I got here, was sitting in my bed, at home with my family, reading Harry Potter, the book this is all from. Then I fell asleep and was dropped here. At first I thought it was all a dream but I wouldn't wake up.' she fell onto the bed, next to Fred. 'Look I know you might think I'm crazy, but I'm not. I can prove it to you, if you want me to.' It was quiet for awhile.  
'I'm not from an orphanage, I'm not a wizard, and I don't belong in this kind of a world. I just want to go home.'  
'Em, you were here before third year.' he said.  
'Which makes things all the more weird. I don't remember first or second year.' Fred looked kind of depressed. 'What?'  
'Nothing, it's just, if you don't remember first year, then you don't remember how we met.' he said. It just hit her that that was true.  
'Oh my god, you're right.' she felt a tear stroll down her face. She looked away from Fred.  
'No, no, hey, it's alright.' he said. 'It doesn't matter, I kind of like how you don't remember...' he said.  
'Why?'  
'No reason.' he said quickly.  
'So...I don't expect you to believe me, it just feels _really_ good to get that off my chest.' she breathed, looking straight up at the ceiling. Fred smiled and moved on top of her and kissed her, he smiled as she melted into the kiss. 'So does this mean that we can try again?' she asked.  
'I'd _love_ to try again.' he smiled as he removed her robe. He turned them around so she was straddling him. She grabbed his jaw and gave him a long, passionate kiss and tucked her head into his neck.

'Fred.' she whispered.  
'Mhm?'  
'Could you tell me how we met?' she asked, she could feel the smile forming on his face.  
'You really want to know?' he asked.  
'Desperately.' she said.  
'Well, we officially met when me and George pulled a prank on you.' he said.  
'You pulled a prank on me?' she asked as she removed her head from his neck.  
'I swear it was really meant for Snape, but you just happened to walk by at the same time he was supposed to.'  
'What happened?' she asked.  
'We were hiding in a broom cupboard in the entrance hall, holding a bucket of frogs out of sight, we dropped it when we saw someone coming around the corner, little did we know it was you.' Emily laughed.  
'Then what happened?'  
'Well you spotted us, being the little observant girl you were and charmed our pants to give us wedgies.' Emily covered her mouth.  
'I did that?' she asked.  
'Yeah, it hurt!'  
'Did I get caught?'  
'We both did. McGonagall sent us both to Dumbledore's office and the three of us received detention that night, cleaning the statue in the entrance hall. That's where we apologized and called our truce. We swore to only pull pranks on others instead of each other.'  
'Man I wish I could've been there.' she frowned.  
'Well you were, in a way.' he said.

'Fred I just realized.'  
'What?' he asked.  
'What are we going to tell everyone? Especially Dumbledore, if he finds out I started to date again, all hell could break loose.' she said.  
'I don't think we should tell anyone, at least, not yet. We got in trouble last time because people noticed we were together. I can't lose you again.' he said.  
'Neither can I.' she whispered. Then came a knock on the door.  
'Speaking of other people...' she whispered.  
'Fredy, you in there?' came George's voice. Fred and Emily jumped off the bed and he tossed her her robe and put on his clothes.  
'Put this on and get under my bed.' he said.  
'Really? You're going to make me hide under your bed? Is that how you treat a lady? I'll hide in the closet.' she said.  
'Fredy, c'mon, I couldn't get in last night!' George said again, thank god Fred locked the door and silenced the room last night. Emily ran into the closet. Fred made sure he couldn't see her before he opened the door.  
'Finally, what were you doing?' George asked as he came into the room.  
'Nothing, I was just sleeping.' he said.  
'Reason why you locked the door?' he asked, as he fell onto his bed.  
'Didn't want mom coming in.' he said. 'So where'd you go last night?'  
'I fell asleep on the couch after Emily chased you up the stairs. she seemed like she was going to explode.' he said.  
'Ya, so did I.'  
'Where'd she go anyways?' George asked.  
'How am I supposed to know? Fred asked, walking over to his bed before looking at his closet. 'When's breakfast?'  
'Should be any moment, want to go downstairs and check to see if mum's done it?' he asked.  
'Um, sure. I'll meet you down there, I should probably shower first.' he said as George left the room. The door closed and Emily burst out of the closet.  
'This is going to be harder than I thought.' she said.

Emily made her way down to breakfast, where she could hear everyone already eating.  
'Emily there you are. Where on earth did you go off to last night?' Ginny asked.  
'I was spending the entire night getting the neon red out of my hair, no thanks to Fred.' she said.  
'Well I'm glad you finally managed to, it was horrendous.'  
'Thanks Ginny.' she sneered. 'Anyways, what's for breakfast?'  
'pancakes!' Ron said, with his mouth full of them.  
'Lovely.' she smiled, grabbed a plate and sat next to Fred.  
'Did you hear what happened?' Remus asked.  
'What? Is this about Harry?' she asked.  
'He used the patronus charm in front of his muggle cousin Dudley. There's going to be a hearing.' he said.  
'But he only used it because of the Dementors.' she said.  
'Yes, I know that, you know that, Fudge doesn't know that.' Remus said.  
'That's completely unfair.' she said as she began to eat her breakfast.  
'We're going out to get him tonight.' he said.  
'Splendid, I can't wait to see how he's doing.' she said.

* * *

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	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32: **

Emily had just finished cleaning out the broom cupboard under the stairs. Molly had her clean out numerous things. It wasn't just her who was cleaning, everyone else too. Hermione was on her way to the house, escorted by Kingsley and Moody who had left to pick her up moments ago. Emily walked into her room and rummaged through her bag and took out the Advanced Potion Making book Snape had given her. She looked at the front, then the back, then opened it. She laid on her bed as she looked through it. She could see a bunch of Snape's notes he had taken, and little improvements to recipes. She didn't quite understand why, but she actually enjoyed the whole potion making procedures. It was fun and the only thing she could actually do right. She flipped through the pages, to preoccupied to notice her surroundings. So preoccupied that she didn't notice Fred come into her room.

'Whatcha lookin' at?' he asked as he came up behind her, kissing her neck.  
'Don't do that.' she said, without looking up.  
'Do what?' he asked. She turned around and Fred caught her in a kiss. She pulled away and looked around. 'What are you looking at?'  
'What if someone sees us?' she asked.  
'Relax, everyone's still out cleaning.' he said as he got up and closed the door.  
'Have you told George?'' she asked suddenly.  
'No. Should I have?'  
'No I suppose not.' she said as he came back to her bed. She cuddled up to him as he put an arm around her. 'Are you okay, not telling him? I know that he's like your second half.'  
'I'll tell George when the time's right. I just don't think that's any time soon though.' he said. 'So what _were_ you looking at?'  
'a book Snape gave me.' she said as she pulled it out again. 'It's amazing, I've already learned so much. It's weird though, I feel like I'm inside his head.'  
'I never knew you were interested in potions?' he said curiously.  
'Neither did I...'

'Em! Hermione's here!' Molly shouted from downstairs. Emily ran out of Fred's grasp and down the stairs.  
'Hermione!' she said as she ran up to hug her. 'Oh it feels like an eternity since I've last seen you, how are you?'  
'Fine, I'm just fine, and you?'  
'I'm alright. C'mon, let's get you settled in.' she said, leading Hermione up the stairs. She peeked in to make sure Fred was gone, which he was. 'Alright, that's your bed over there.' she said, pointing across the room.  
'Lovely.' she said as she put her stuff down on her bed and sat down on it, looking around the room. Emily walked over to her bed and put her book away and fell back onto her bed.  
'What?' she asked as she stared at her.  
'Well I know it's been awhile since we could actually talk, what with Harry in the tournament last year. I just wanted to know if you were okay?' she asked.  
'What do you mean? Of course I'm okay.' she said.  
'Really? I mean you were really quiet after your break up with Fred last year.'  
'Well that was because I had my heart was broken.' she said simply.  
' I know, I could clearly see that.' Hermione said. 'I'm just sorry for not comforting you earlier.'  
'Look, Hermione, I'm fine. Can we just forget about me ever being with Fred? It's clear that we weren't made for each other. That's All there is to it.' she said.  
'Alright, fine.' she said, unpacking. 'But just know, I'm here if you ever need to talk about something.'  
'Funny, that's what I used to tell you.' she laughed.

A part of the order had just headed out to get Harry and bring him back to Headquarters. Dumbledore was coming tonight for an important meeting. She was setting the table downstairs in the kitchen when she could hear a bunch of the Order members piling into the dining room upstairs. She finished and headed upstairs with a plate of cookies.  
'Emily?' Sirius said as he caught her before she headed upstairs.  
'Yeah?'  
'Could you tell the lot of them upstairs to keep it down for about an hour or so? We've got a meeting going on down here and if Alastor comes through those doors and hears them, he'll lose it.' he asked.  
'Yeah no problem.' she smiled.  
'Thanks.' he winked as he took a cookie. She rushed upstairs to the twins room, where she would most likely be spending the rest of her night.

'Whoa, Em watch out as you come in. We've got something going on here.' George shouted as she tried to come in. She slowly opened the door and peeked inside. They were at it again, creating fireworks and what not. but once they spotted the cookies, they dropped what they were doing and headed towards her.  
'Oh so when I have cookies I'm suddenly interesting?' she asked.  
'No you're always interesting.' Fred said as he took a cookie.  
'Okay Em, check _this_ one out.' George said as he created another spark out of the end of his wand.  
'Wow, you guys are getting really good at that.' she said. 'You really going to open your own shop when you leave school?' she asked, placing the cookies on Fred's bedside table.  
'We've already got the location picked out, in Diagon Alley.' George said as he created another spark.  
'wow.' she said.  
'Ya, we've got loads of merchandise already made, we're having trouble hiding it from mum.' he said.  
'That's awesome.' she said. 'I can't wait to see it.'  
'You can come see it, y'know, after we get it open and stuff.' Fred said, Emily wasn't long before Harry had arrived and they were sent down to the kitchen to eat dinner. Emily heard all about the attack and how Harry was almost captured by a Dementor. Arthur prepared him for his hearing and told him everything he needed to know.

* * *

**Sorry it was a short chapter, I really want to go play in the snow!**

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	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33: **

After they all said their goodbyes to their friends and family, they all boarded the train and looked for an empty compartment.  
'Here's one.' Emily mumbled, walking into it. The twins followed her. She put her bag on the rack above the seats and sat down. 'I don't know why Dumbledore insists that I take the train. We can all already apparate to the castle.'  
'Yeah but it's not the same. This is the last time we'll ever ride this train to Hogwarts. You wouldn't want to miss out on that would you?' George said. He had a valid point, it _was _the last time she'd be riding it.  
'I guess you're right.' she mumbled. They sat in silence for a few moments longer. So right after school, the two of you're going to set up your shop?'  
'Yup. It'll be a great success.' Fred said.  
'I wouldn't doubt that for a second.' she smiled. 'I have a feeling this is going to be a year no one will forget.' she said as she stared out the window. She could feel Fred's eyes on her as she dozed off.

Emily woke up to the sound of a big pop. It was clear that she'd been sleeping for hours because it was now dark out. The compartment's light was on, giving the room a dimly lit look, like how it would look at midnight. She looked around and watched Fred and George as they were talking, she noticed they were already dressed in their uniform.  
'Are we about there?' she asked.  
'Just about.' George said.  
'How long was I out?'  
'A few hours.' Fred said.  
'I think I'll go change.' she yawned as she got up and grabbed her bag, leaving the small room. She walked down the hall and to the change rooms which fortunately weren't occupied. She bumped into someone as she walked towards them.  
'Ah, if it isn't Ryan.' Draco said. Emily sneered. 'You know, if you need a shoulder to lean on, I'm here.' he said.  
'What are you talking about Draco?' she asked.  
'After your break up with Weasley, I'm sure you're going to need to bounce back sometime soon.' he said.  
'That's gross.' she rolled her eyes and pushed past him to the change rooms. She quickly changed into her robes and put her clothes into her bag. She took one last look in the mirror to see how she looked, and left. She walked down the long hall of the train when she saw Fred come out of the compartment. 'Hey. What are you doing?' she asked curiously. He looked down the hall and pulled her to an empty compartment. He locked the door and pulled down the curtains. 'Fred?' He pulled her into a kiss, making her drop her things onto the floor.  
'We need some time.' he smiled. He pulled her back into a kiss and pulled her up so she could wrap her legs around him. The train suddenly came to a quick stop.  
'Fred, I think we're here.' she whispered.  
'Just five more minutes.' he whined. Emily laughed as she pulled him off of her.  
'we need to go.' She opened the compartment door and looked down the hall, no one has came out yet. The two of them made their way back to their compartment.

'What took you so long?' George asked.  
'Sorry, issues...' she said.  
'Well if you hadn't noticed, we've arrived.' he said.  
'Really George, is _that_ why the train stopped? I had no idea.' she said sarcastically.  
'Come on, let's go.' he said, pushing them out of the compartment and out of the train. They climbed onto a carriage towards the castle. Emily was practically attacked by Angelina as she came into the castle entrance hall.  
'Well hello to you too!' Emily laughed.  
'Hi! How was your summer?' she asked.  
'It was actually pretty great.' she smiled. 'Did you do anything?'  
'Not really, stayed at home most of the time.' she said as they got into the great hall, the twins falling behind.  
'So.' George began. Fred looked at him.  
'What?' he asked.  
'Nothing.'  
'No that isn't a _nothing _so. It's a _we should talk about something_ so.' he said.  
'Well, it was more of a _curious_ kind of so.' George said.  
'And what are you so curious about George?' Fred asked.  
'Well you and Emily of course.' Fred stopped in his tracks.  
'What about us?'  
'Well when are you going to get back together?' Fred relaxed a bit, he still didn't know.  
'George, I don't think we're going to get back together...'  
'Why not? You've loved her since first year. You can't tell me that after _one_ try you're giving up.' he said.  
'what do you mean?' Fred asked.  
'I mean you should ask her again, give it another try.'  
'but it isn't that simple!' Fred said.  
'What do _you_ mean?' he asked. Fred was silent for a moment. 'Freddy, what did you find out?' George asked.  
'Nothing.'  
'C'mon tell me!' George poked him.  
'I honestly didn't find anything out, at least, not yet anyways.' he said as he took a seat at the table.

After they had the feast Dumbledore got up and began to speak.  
'Good evening children! Now we have two changes in staffing this year. First, we are pleased to welcome back professor Grubbly-Plank who will be taking care of magical creatures while professor Hagrid is on leave. I'd also like to welcome our new defence against the dark arts teacher, professor Delores Umbridge. And I'm sure you'll all wish the professor good luck. Now as usual our care taker Mr. Filch-' he was cut off by Umbridge clearing her throat, wanting his attention. she got up and walked towards the podium.  
'Thank you headmaster, for those kind words of welcome. And how lovely to see all your bright, happy faces smiling up at me, I'm sure we're all going to be great friends.' Emily shivered in disgust, she always _hated this woman.  
_'that's likely.' the twins said together, making a few other Gryffindors laugh.  
'The Ministry of magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be a vital importance. Although watch headmaster has brought something new to this _historic _school, progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged. Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected, and pro practices that ought to be prohibited.' she giggled, sending another long shiver down Emily's spine. She walked off stage and Dumbledore began applauding, queuing the rest of the students to go along with it as well, but Emily did not, and he noticed.  
'Why thank you professor, that really was most illuminating.' he said as he went on with his speech.

After dinner, Emily made her way back to the common room.  
'So what do you think of the new professor?' Angelina asked as she slumped down into the arm chair, Emily took her usual spot next to the fire.  
'Honestly, I think she's going to ruin this entire school.' the twins took a seat on the couch across from them.  
'You really think that?' Fred asked.  
'Yes, I do. I don't think anyone noticed but she's in the ministry and the ministry is completely against the fact that Voldemort is back.'  
'Don't say his name.' George said.  
'No I _will_ say his name. Unlike a bunch of people here, I'm not afraid of him. I _know_ he's back, and I _know_ he's building up his army again and I'm _not _just going to sit here and pretend that we're all still safe, because believe it or not, we are in more danger_ here_than we are out in _that_ world alone.' she got up and headed for her room.  
'Em!' Fred called after her. She ignored him and slammed her door as she entered her room.

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	34. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34: **

Emily woke up the next morning and headed down stairs to breakfast by herself. It was really early and only a few students were in the hall. She sat down looking at her cereal. She heard Fred approach her and sit down across from her at the Gryffindor table. She didn't look up from her bowl as he cleared his throat.  
'Emily.' he said.  
'What?' she asked finally looking up at him.  
'What went on with you last night? You got all upset-'  
'That's because none of you know what's going to happen Fred!' she said in a hushed, angry tone.  
'What's going to happen?' he asked. She looked back down at her cereal.  
'I can't tell you that.'  
'We agreed there would be no more secrets.' he said.  
'Well this I cannot talk about.' she looked around to see if anyone was watching, no one was. She grabbed his hand from across the table and held it. 'You must understand Fred. I'm only trying to protect the people that I love.' she whispered.  
'Are you going to be alright?'  
'Me? Of course, who do you think you're talking to?' she laughed, Fred still looked serious.  
'God I wish I could kiss you right now.' he said. Emily blushed and looked down at her bowl smiling. They pulled their hands apart for the rest of breakfast, their friends soon joined them at the table.

After breakfast, Emily was heading to her first Defence Against the Dark Arts class with Umbridge. She got into class and they instantly started.  
'All students would you please sit down and keep quiet.' Umbridge demanded as she took a seat beside Angelina. 'We will begin with N.E.W.T's' she said. 'Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests are the exams that you seventh years will take at the end of the year. I assume you will _all_ give a great example for the younger years on how to act this year.' she said as she flung her wand and the text books began to be handed out. Emily quickly opened hers and looked though it, after noticing that there were no defensive spells in the "ministry approved" spell book, she raised her hand. 'Yes?'  
'Um, there are absolutely no defensive spells in this book.' she said. She could tell a few people looked at Emily funny.  
'And?'  
'_And, _I just find it weird that we're in defense against the dark arts and we aren't going to be learning _anything_ that will help us defend ourselves.' she said.  
'Why would you need to defend yourself in the first place miss Ryan?' Umbridge asked.  
'Well because of the things that are happening out there.'  
'There is nothing out there!' Umbridge said, raising her voice.  
'Yes there is! Are you completely that arrogant and prideful that you won't even consider the possibility that he _has_ returned?' Emily spoke up.  
'_I _am not the prideful one my dear, I had the exact same problem in the previous class, with Mister Potter and-'  
'Well I'm glad _he_ knew what was going on!' she said.  
'Emily if you'd be so kind to stay back after class, you now have detention. One more outburst and it'll be a week!' Emily stayed quiet now. Angelina nudged her, but Emily stayed quiet.

After class Emily walked up to the professors office and knocked on the door.  
'Come in!' she called as Emily pushed open the door, and came in. 'Ah, miss Ryan, please take a seat.' Emily took a seat and Umbridge came around her desk. 'You'll be writing some lines for me today miss Ryan.' she said. Emily pulled out her quill. 'Not with yours, with mine.'  
'I rather use mine, as would like to avoid the pen scratching into my skin, professor.' she said.  
'How could you have possibly known about that?' Umbridge asked, surprised.  
'Lucky guess.' Emily got out her quill and began to write her lines, then being dismissed back to her common room. But instead of heading to her common room, she headed for Dumbledore's office. She came in and saw him at his desk, looking at an old piece of parchment. 'Sir?'  
'Emily!' he smiled. 'How's the first day going?'  
'Why would you let Umbridge teach here?' she asked. 'She's horrible, I know Harry won't come tell you, but that old twat used a charmed quill on him, that scratch the words "I must not tell lies" onto his hand.' she said.  
'It wasn't my decision. Fudge reckons it's a good idea to have someone from the ministry here at the school, to observe from their own perspective.'  
'And they just _had _to choose that old hag?' she asked.  
'Look I can see you're very upset about this.' he said.  
'Me? Upset about that bit-' Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. 'That _woman_, never.' she said sarcastically.  
'Just try not to let her get to you this year, enjoy this time while you can.' he said as he stood up and walked over to Emily. She put her arms around him and hugged him.  
'I'm worried for you Albus.' she said. 'I don't know how I'll go on without you.' she said, he could hear the tears in her voice.  
'I'm not going anywhere any time soon, am I?' he asked.  
'No, not this year.' she said. 'But please be careful next summer.'

Emily went back to her common room and met up with Angelina.  
'How was it?' she asked.  
'What?' Emily asked confused.  
'The detention, with Umbridge?'  
'Oh, that wasn't that bad. She just made me write some lines. Pretty easy detention.' Emily smiled and walked up to her room, with her friend by her side.

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	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35:**

A few weeks had passed since Emily's encounter with Umbridge. Ever since, she could tell that teacher had it out for her, but it wasn't just _her_ she had it out for, it was clearly Harry as well. She knew he's been feeling lonely and he's been very distant. If anyone knew how he was feeling at the moment, it was Emily. She too had been taken from her family, only; she thought it was a good thing at first. A dream where she could be a witch, cast magical spells and have all the fun in the world, but she herself would give anything to go back. For some reason, Emily's been feeling homesick, and Dumbledore could surely tell or at least she hoped he did. Emily opened her trunk to find the advanced potions book that Snape had given her. She's really been enjoying the subject lately. She remembered seeing a potion where it could send you anywhere in the world, so she decided to head down to the dungeons and ask Snape about it before breakfast. She thankfully caught him entering the great hall as she hurried down the stair case.

'Oh good, I've caught you.' she said as she approached her teacher. Snape looked at her with curiosity.  
'Yes indeed you have, make it quick Ryan.' he said.  
'I need to talk to you about something.' she said. 'It's rather important.' She walked them over to the side of the door, and turned to the wall. 'That book you leant me, full of your own potions.' she began.  
'What of it?' he asked.  
'Well I saw a recipe for this one potion, it's said, if brewed right, that it could take you anywhere you wanted. I was just wondering if maybe that could possibly work, I mean, if it could take me _anywhere_ than could it-' she rambled on.  
'Miss Ryan, you want to go home, don't you?' he asked.  
'Honestly sir, yes.' she said. She could tell he believed her long ago, and he still did now.  
'I am not certain it would work, as you fell into a different world, not a different place.' he said. Emily looked down at her shoes. 'However, it wouldn't hurt to at least try.' She looked up at him with a smile on her face.  
'So you'll help me make it?' she asked.  
'I will get you what you need for it, but I will not help you make it. I've had trouble with this one potion many times before it is not as easy as one would think, even though I've created it.' he said.  
'Thank you.' she said as he left her and entered the great hall.

Emily leaned against the wall, clutching the book to her chest smiling. She could possibly get back! There was a slight chance that this could work. From the corner of her eye she could see the twins coming down from the steps.  
'Good morning Em.' they said in unison.  
'Good morning to you Fred, and you George. What a lovely day it is, isn't it?' she said in a dreamy tone. George raised an eyebrow at her.  
'Okay, it's official, you're loopy.' he said. She just stuck her tongue out at him and continued to smile. 'What's that you've got?' he asked, pointing at the potion book.  
'Oh!' she said, remembering why she was so happy. 'This is just a little book I got from Snape, nothing really that interesting in it.' she said casually.  
'Well of course not, its potions.' he said as he left Fred and Emily in the entrance hall and continued into the great hall.  
'So what _are_ you so happy about?' Fred asked her. She smirked and pulled him into the nearest broom cupboard. She closed the door and flicked on the light.

'This.' she smiled, and handed him the book, she had opened it to the page of the potion. Fred took it from her hands and read it over. 'It's a potion, that could possibly send me home.' she began. 'Snape doesn't know for sure, but it could possibly work. Imagine, I could see my family again!' she said. She noticed Fred hadn't said anything, and there was no smile on his face as she had one on hers. 'Fred?' she asked. He was reading the recipe over and over again, completely sidetracked on it. 'Fred!' she said again as he looked up from the page.  
'What?'  
'What do you think?' she asked smiling. Fred looked from her to the book.  
'You're trying to leave?' he asked. Emily thought about it for a moment.  
'Well, yeah.' she said. Fred handed her the book again.  
'Why? Don't you like it here?'  
'Well- yes but- Fred I have a family back in my life that needs me. I've been gone too long.' she said.  
'But, what about graduation, O.W.L's, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Angelina, George,' he paused, 'me?' She hadn't realized that.  
'I didn't think about it that way...' she murmured. 'Here I was thinking you'd be happy.'  
'Look Em I am, honest! I'm with you one hundred percent on whatever you choose, it's your call alright.' he said.  
'But if I go, you'll-'  
'I'll be fine.' he said. 'It's you we need to get back home.' he smiled and pulled her in to hug her.

They left the cupboard and went to the table for breakfast.  
'What took you too so long?' Ginny asked.  
'Nothing, just chatting.' she said, Ginny noticed she wasn't very upbeat as she usually was.  
'You okay?' she asked.  
'I'm fine.' she said as she took a seat. They watched as Ron bit into a huge sausage and bits of it began to fall out of his mouth as he chewed, it was absolutely gross.  
'Do you ever stop eating?' Hermione asked. Ron looked at her like she was crazy.  
'What, I'm hungry!' he said defending himself. Just then, Harry came up to us all at the table.  
'Harry.' Hermione said greeting him.  
'Can I join you?' he asked.  
'Of course you can, c'mon.' Emily nudged her had for her to sit in between them but something caught their attention as he was about to take a seat. The sound of what seemed to be two teachers fighting.

'I'm sorry professor, but what exactly are you insinuating?' Umbridge asked as she climbed the steps leading to the grand staircase.  
'I'm nearly requesting that when it comes to my students, you conform to the prescribed disciplinary practices.' McGonagall said to that bat of a woman.  
'So silly of me, but it sounds as if you're questioning my authority in my own classroom, Minerva.' Umbridge said, as students, including Emily herself, came and watched.  
'Not at all, Delores. merely your medieval methods.' she said.  
'I am sorry dear, but to question my practices is to question the ministry and by extension, the minister himself. I am a tolerant woman but the one thing I will not stand for, is disloyalty.' Umbridge said.  
'Disloyalty...' McGonagall repeated.  
'Things at Hogwarts are far worse than I feared. Cornelius would want to take immediate action.' Umbridge announced.

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	36. Chapter 36

**Chapter 36:**

Emily leaned against the railing in the astronomy tower, looking down at the small pink blob that was Dolores Umbridge. Fudge had made her high inquisitor at the school a couple of weeks ago. Em ordered Dumbledore to do something about this, but he would not do a thing. He simply said "things are what they are" and left it at that. Anyway, Umbridge wasn't exactly the thing that was on her mind at the moment, it was the potion she found in the book Snape had given her, the one that could send her back. After she told Fred about it, he- well he hadn't said much to her at all. He's been rather quiet for days now. She knew she should have listened to Dumbledore, he told her not to get attached, but she did. She got too attached. She had undoubtedly, and unintentionally fallen in love with Fred, or more so than she did before. Before all of this had happened, Emily liked him, sure, he was her favourite character. It must have had something to do with reading about him. She always loved reading about him, what he'd do with his brother. And then at the end, when he- well you already know of course. _That's_ what she was afraid of; _that's _what she was trying to avoid. She already knew she was going to lose him.

Dumbledore came up beside her, and wrapped his long, slender fingers around the railing, looking down in the same direction in which Emily was. She noticed him and looked over, but he did not.  
'Emily Severus has spoken to me about this potion.' he said.  
'Yeah, what about it?' she asked.  
'Do you think it is wise to do such a thing?' he asked.  
'W-wise? Sir I think it's the wisest idea I've ever had. Only a fool would abandon their family.' she went on. 'And why would I not want to go, there I have a family, and here-' she paused, 'well here I have close to nothing. And I don't think I want that.' She whispered the last part.  
'Nonsense, here you have friends to keep you company, I see the smile they put on your face every day. Teachers that car for you and help you and guide you, and me.' he took a moment, looking out at the large body of water that you could see easily from the tower. 'I've tried to raze you like my own daughter.' he smirked.  
'I know, and I'm eternally grateful, but I _have _a family. And I bet they miss me more than I would ever imagine missing them. I don't think anyone here would really understand that.' she said.  
'Do you think this is the right choice?' he asked. Emily was quiet for a moment, thinking about it in her head.  
'I think it's the only choice.'

Emily left the astronomy tower and headed to the potions classroom to where she would brew up the potion. She knocked on the door.  
'Enter.' she heard an aggravated voice say as she came in.  
'Sir.' she said.  
'Ryan, come in, come in.' he said as she closed the door. 'What is it?' he asked.  
'I've managed to get all of the things ready for the potion.' she said. 'I was wondering, well, if it's a good time, I could possibly brew it?'  
'Right now?' he asked.  
'Well yes, the faster I get it done, the faster I get home.' she said.  
'Oh, well of course. Have you spoken to the headmaster about this?' he asked. Emily nodded and headed for the nearest cauldron. She took her bag off and began to pull out various supplies to create the potion. For what seemed like hours, she slaved over the cauldron, as if she was concocting a recipe that only a skilled chef could manage doing, she added bits of what the book had told her. She looked at the old clock on the wall, it was a little past eleven at night, and she was exhausted. Snape had already left her alone and said goodbye. She added the bits of Flitterbloom that was needed and the potion suddenly began to glow green. Then the door flung open and Fred came running in, panting as if he was running for a long time.  
'Fred?' she asked, confused to see him here. 'What are you doing here?' he looked at the glowing green potion.  
'What are _you_ doing? Are you going? already?' he asked.  
'Well yes, I told you today, before you went out for Quiddit-' she was cut off by Fred going up to her and forcefully kissing her. He instantly pulled her closer by the waist and deepened the kiss. Emily wound her fingers around his neck, seeking more warmth from him. After a few moments, she pulled back.  
'You can't leave.' he stated.  
'Fred-'  
'No, you can't. I can't lose you. If you left, I don't know what I'd do.' he said. Emily stood and listened. 'We said we'd try again, remember, that we didn't want to lose each other again. I'm not going to.' Emily looked at the potion, then back at Fred.  
'But- but I have to go back...' she choked. 'My family's there. They need me Fred.' she said. 'I'm sorry. I really am.'  
'Em.' he said, 'I love you.'  
'I love you too.' she kissed him with all the passion that she possibly could. And then looked over at the potion. She took up the ladle, full of the glowing green liquid that sparkled on it. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back as she drank it. She waited for a moment, but nothing happened. She opened her eyes to look at the ladle. She put it back in and drank some more. Nothing happened.  
'what's wrong?' Fred asked from behind her.  
'Th-There's no- nothing is happening!' she cried. 'No, no no no no no! this can't be, I did it exactly how it said-' she dropped the ladle and picked up the book, scanning it. 'I didn't miss anything.' she cried again. She ran over to the supply table to see if anything was in the wrong place maybe she accidently made it wrong? But no, nothing was out of the ordinary.

She slumped against the wall, crying to herself, with a bottle of Flitterbloom in her hands. Fred came and sat beside her. She leaned her head on his shoulder as she cried even more.  
'I can't believe it didn't work. I was so sure it would! I'll never get home.' she cried.  
'Shhh, it's okay, it's not the end.' Fred told her. 'I'm sure we'll find a way.'  
'What if we don't? What if I get stuck here forever?' she asked.  
'Would that be so bad?' he smiled. Emily smiled as well, she was sure he wouldn't mind her staying.  
'Well certainly not for you.' she said. After a few moments of silence, Fred convinced that she had fallen asleep on him. But she moved her head a bit and realized she was still awake.  
'Come on, let's get back to the common room. You're exhausted.' he said, helping her up.  
'I meant what I side y'know.' she said suddenly.  
'What?' he asked confused.  
'That I loved you.' Fred smiled and wrapped his arms around her, she melted into his touch.  
'And I meant it too of course, you're amazing.' she smiled. The two of them headed back up into the castle and into the common room.

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	37. Chapter 37

**Chapter 37:**

Emily rushed out the front door of the castle to the large crowd outside. Professor Trelawney was getting sacked. She followed numerous students through the courtyard and fell in front of the twins. She watched as Umbridge came casually strolling through the front entrance. The very sight of that woman made her skin crawl, it was because of her she never liked the colour pink. She walked up to the sobbing professor with large bug eye glasses that made her eyes look enormous.  
'sixteen years I've been here, Hogwarts is my home! You can't do this.' she cried, begging the high inquisitor not to let her go. It wasn't any secret that Trelawney was a fraud, but nonetheless, people enjoyed her teaching methods, including Emily.  
'Actually, I can.' Umbridge smiled, holding up the small piece of paper that explained that she indeed could.  
'That woman is rotten.' Fred whispered to Emily, she leaned over.  
'I'm glad it won't end well for her.' Emily whispered back, 'She gets dragged off by centaurs thanks to our brilliant Harry.' Fred chuckled a bit. McGonagall rushed out to comfort Trelawney.  
'Something you'd like to say dear?' Umbridge asked.  
'Oh there are _several _things I would like to say.' McGonagall spoke. Just then, the entrance doors flew open once more to reveal Albus Dumbledore. He kept storming out.  
'Professor McGonagall would you please escort Trelawney back inside.' he said. Trelawney thanks the headmaster and McGonagall walked her in.  
'Dumbledore may I remind you that under the terms of educational decree number 23 as proclaimed by the minister-' Umbridge began.  
'You have the right to fire my teachers, but you do not however have the power to banish them from the grounds. That power remains with the headmaster.' he said sternly.  
'For now.' she smiled. Dumbledore looked around the courtyard, his eyes landing on Emily's.  
'Don't you all have studying to do?' he shouted, and left to go back into the castle.

The rest of that day was rather quiet. Emily had no class last block because there was no one to fill in for Trelawney. She sat on the couch in the common room and began to look through her potions book once more. She just didn't understand why the potion had not worked. It frustrated her to no end. She lost track of time in her book, and was startled to feel two arms wrap around her from behind. She jumped up off of the couch and looked at the person they belonged to.  
'Fred, you almost scared me to death.' she laughed, he joined in as well. He jumped over the back of the couch and plopped down on it. She sat down next to him. 'Why aren't you in class?' she asked.  
'Because it was the last class of the week and the only thing I could think about was you.' he said as he pulled her closer, he gave her a short kiss on the mouth, then broke off, and kissed down her neck. Emily dropped her book and wound her fingers into his bright orange locks as his face was in the crook of her neck.  
'Fred, what if someone comes in?' she asked.  
'No one will come in.' he said pushing her down and laid on top of her, he switched sides emitting a small laugh from Emily.  
'How do you know that?' she asked.  
'Because class is still going.' he murmured. 'Plus we haven't really had time together in god knows how long.' he said coming back up. Emily pulled him in and kissed him again. She felt Fred's hands move from her neck, down to the hem of her shirt where he slipped one hand underneath, and trailed his way up to her breast. Emily's breathing was becoming hitched. He was absolutely right, it has been way to long since they've done anything like this. Before anything could go any further, they broke apart after hearing the portrait hole opening. Emily quickly picked up her book off of the floor and sat on the opposite side of the couch. They pretended nothing happened.

In came Harry, Ron and Hermione. They were talking amongst themselves about something as they came and sat down on the couch.  
'What are you two doing in here?' Ron asked.  
'No class.' Fred spoke quickly.  
'Trelawney wasn't there.' Emily said. 'So what's wrong?' she asked, trying to change the subject.  
'We were talking about that wretched evil old gargoyle.' Hermione said in a frustrated tone. 'We're not learning how to defend ourselves, we're not learning how to pass our OWL's, she's taking over the _entire_ school!' she exclaimed.  
'I'm sure this will all blow over soon, we just need to give it some time.' Ron said.  
'No, 'Mione's right. She's going to end up taking over this blasted school if someone doesn't do something, and fast.' she said looking over at Harry. 'Things are getting dangerous, and not just out _there_, but here at the school as well. To me, this just feels the calm before the storm.'  
'He really is out there isn't he?' Hermione asked, looking out the window at the dark, rainy sky. 'We've got to be able to defend ourselves. And if Umbridge refuses to teach us we need someone who will.' she said, and turned to Harry.

* * *

'This is mad! Who would want to be taught by me? I'm a nutter remember?' Harry asked. Emily, Harry, Ron and Hermione were travelling down to Hogsmeade to have the first meeting of Dumbledore's Army. She was extremely excited, this was going to be an amazing experience! Everyone was going to sign up, though she already officially put her name on the list, wanting to be the first person. Just to say that she was the first. They walk towards Hogshead.  
'Look on the bright side, you can't be any worse than old toad face.' Ron assured him.  
'Thanks Ron.' Harry said.  
'I' here for you mate.' Ron said, clearly not catching Harry's sarcasm.  
'Who's supposed to be meeting us then?' Harry asked.  
'Just a couple of people.' Hermione answered. Emily opened the door to the Hogshead, it was smaller than she remembered.  
'Lovely spot.' Ron said.  
'It smells like Troll to me.' Emily said.  
'I thought it would be safer somewhere off the beaten track.' Hermione explained.

It wasn't long until people began to arrive and got the meeting started. Everyone was seated, and Hermione rose to speak first.  
'Uhm, hi. So, you all know why we're here. We need a teacher - a proper teacher. One who's had real experience defending themselves against the dark arts.' She explained.  
'Why?' Zachariah Smith asked.  
'Because "you-know-who's" back you toss pot.' Ron said.  
'So he says?' Zachariah asked referring to Harry.  
'So Dumbledore says.'  
'So Dumbledore says because he says?' he asked again.  
'Shut up Zach.' Emily said.  
'The point is, where's the proof?' he asked again. Emily rolled her eyes. 'If Potter could tell us more about how Diggory died.'  
'Look I'm not going to talk about Cedric so if that's why you're here you might as well clear out now.' Harry said standing. 'Come on, they're here because they think I'm some kind of freak.' Harry whispered.  
'Harry wait-' Emily began.  
'Is it true you can produce the patronus charm?' Luna asked. Emily turned to the blonde haired girl and mentally thanked her.  
'Yes; I've seen it.' Hermione spoke up.  
'Blimey, I didn't know you could do that.' Dean stated.  
'And he killed a basilisk, with the sword in Dumbledore's office.' Neville spoke up.  
'It's true!' Ginny said.  
'And in third year he fought off about a hundred Dementors at once.' Ron added.  
'And last year he really did fight off "You-know-who" in the flesh.' Hermione spoke.  
'Wait, it all sounds great if you say it like that, but most of that was just luck. I didn't know what I was doing half the time, and I nearly always had help.' Harry said.  
'He's just being modest.' Hermione said.  
'No Hermione, I'm not.' he said, and took a deep breath. 'Facing this stuff in real life, is not like school. In school, if you make a mistake you can just try again tomorrow. But out there, when you're a second away from being murdered, or watching a friend die right before your eyes, you-' Emily looked over at Fred, trying not to picture his horrifying death. 'You don't know what that's like.' he said. The room fell silent.  
'You're right Harry, we don't. That's why we need your help if we're going to stand a chance against Voldemort.' Hermione said.

The meeting had ended, and all the students got in line to sign up for Harry's class. It was no surprise to her, but to the rest of them, it was a miracle. They left Hogshead and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Emily, Fred and George walked up to the castle together.  
'Alright, first we need to find a place to practice that Umbridge won't find out.' Harry said as they all began to cross the covered bridge.  
'The shrieking shack?' Ginny suggested.  
'No, that's too small.' Harry replied.  
'The forbidden forest?' Hermione asked.  
'No bloody chance!' Ron said quickly.  
'Aw, what's wrong Ron, still afraid of spiders?' Emily taunted him. He scowled in her direction.  
'Harry, what happens if Umbridge _does_ find out?' Ginny asked.  
'Who cares!' Hermione exclaimed. 'I mean, it's sort of exciting isn't it, breaking the rules.'  
'Who are you and what have you done with Hermione Granger?' Ron said and they all laughed.  
'Anyway, at least we know one positive thing that came from today.' Hermione smiled.  
'What's that?' Harry asked.  
'Cho couldn't take her eyes off of you could she?'

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	38. Chapter 38

**Chapter 38:**

A few weeks passed and many members who had signed up for the DA have been searching the school for somewhere to practice, with only a few weeks before Christmas, they were wasting time. Emily was sitting in the common room, with Harry, Ron , Hermione, Fred and George. She was reading her book beside the fire when they all turned their heads towards the portrait hole and saw Neville running into the room, out of breath.  
'Neville what's wrong?' Emily asked, as she rose from her spot and went up to him. He was still catching his breath.  
'Neville?' Hermione asked.  
'I-I think I might've found a p-place we could use.' he said, finally calming down. Emily smiled to herself, of course, she almost completely forgot about it.  
'Hermione.' Emily spoke, turning to face Hermione, who was already walking up to her.  
'What?' she asked, noticing the weird smile on her face. 'What?' she asked again.  
'He found it.' she said.  
'Found what? Are you talking about what _we_ were talking about the other day?'  
'Yes-'  
'Emily I already told you that the school's been searched, it doesn't exist-'  
'Oh really? Well then, Neville lead the way.' Emily said cutting off Hermione. Neville exited the room with Emily following, then Hermione, followed by the rest of them. 'five galleons says I'm right.' Emily smirked.  
'Five galleons says you're insane.' Hermione mocked. Emily rolled her eyes and followed Neville.  
'I don't mean to interrupt the party, but what the bloody hell are the two of you on about?' Ron asked from behind.  
'The Room of Requirement of course!' Emily said.  
'Possibly!' she corrected Emily. 'We don't know if Neville's even found a decent place!'  
'Why do you have such little faith?' Emily asked. 'Don't you believe in our glorious friend mister Longbottom here?' Hermione laughed at her friend and continued on. The only fun they have these days are the bickering that go on between the two.

The seven of them got to an empty wall on the seventh floor corridor.  
'Alright, just think about how badly you need a place to practice, watch, a door'll appear!' Neville said. Emily turned to Hermione and smirked.  
'This doesn't prove anything yet.' she muttered.  
'Are you guys thinking?' Neville asked.  
'Yes!' they all said at the same time. Just a few moments later the door appeared, no one was around, so they all hurried into it.  
'Oh my goodness.' Emily gasped. 'It's beautiful!'  
'It really is.' Fred said. 'So you're telling me this room only appears when a person is in real need of it?' He asked Hermione.  
'That's what the books say.' Hermione replied. 'Why?'  
'I dunno, just curious I guess.' he shrugged. Emily smiled to herself, she only wished she could have remembered this room a long time ago. But now that everyone else knew about it, what good would it do?  
'You did it Neville, you found the room of requirement!' Hermione exclaimed.  
'Looks like someone owes me five galleons.' Emily spoke in a sing song voice.  
'The room of what?' Ron asked.  
'It's also known as the come and go room. The room of requirement only appears when the person is in real need of it.' Hermione explained.  
'So say you really needed the toilet...' Ron said.  
'Classy Ron.' Emily raised an eyebrow.  
'Very charming, but yes, that is the _general_ idea.' Hermione sighed.  
'It's brilliant.' Harry spoke up. 'It's like Hogwarts wants us to fight back. We'll start tomorrow.'

* * *

It wasn't long before the word got out to the rest of the members of the DA. They were told to come to the seventh floor corridor at the intended time so that practice could start. Emily helped people find their way to the room. Once everyone got there they got into a line, Neville was at the front along side with Harry. A practice dummy was set up and put i front of them. It raised its wand, waiting for Neville to strike.  
'Go on, remember this is only just a practice class to see how far you all have gotten.' Harry stated. 'Now c'mon, give it a try.' he pointed at the dummy. Neville stood up straight and held out his wand.  
_'Expelliarmus!'_ he shouted, and his wand flew backwards and hit the mirror on the back wall, almost hitting Nigel doing so. Thank goodness that child ducked when he did! A few laughs and snickers could be heard directed to Neville. 'I'm hopeless.' he said.  
'No no, you're just flourishing your wand too much, try it like this, _Expelliarmus!_' Harry hit the wand out of the dummy's hand and onto the ground. 'Give it another try.' Practice went on, everyone showed Harry what they could do and Emily had to admit, they didn't know very much.

'Alright, we made excellent progress today everyone. The next meeting will be at the same time tomorrow.' He announced. 'Well done for the first day.' Everyone was proud of themselves as they left the room. Emily caught up with Harry before he left.  
'Hey, that was brilliant. You're a pretty good teacher Harry.' she told him.  
'Oh, thanks.' he said.  
'How're you feeling?' she asked, Harry looked at her. 'I dunno if it's any of my conern, but you just seemed a little distant.'  
'I'm feeling better, or getting better.' he stated blandly.  
'Oh well that's nice to hear.' she said, then an uncomfortable silence fell upon them. 'So listen,' she began. 'If you're ever feeling, oh I dunno, alone? Feel free to come and find me, I wouldn't mind chatting.' she was trying to reach out to him. 'I've had my fair share of days where I've been feeling that way at least, and I've always found it better to talk to someone.' she smiled.  
'Thanks.' he said. Emily smiled. 'Really, you have no idea how much I'd love to do that.' She nodded in understanding. Just then the dinner bell rang.  
'Is it time already? I've gotta go, Dumbledore's needing to meet with me before dinner.' she said rushing off. 'But Harry, think about what I said. Any time you need to talk, come find me.' she shouted from down the hall and waved. Harry continued on with a small smile on his face.

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	39. Chapter 39

**Chapter 39:**

DA meetings have been going on for a couple of weeks now. Harry's been an excellent teacher, and everyone's learned so much already. The snow was beginning to fall and Christmas break was only two days away. Dumbledore didn't trust Umbridge. He requested Emily to stay at headquarters over the break, just in case something would happen, which Emily told him wouldn't of course. But who was she to deny a two week break with Fred, and the rest of the Weasley's of course.  
'So that's it for this lesson. We're not going to be meeting until after the Holidays.' Harry announced, and the group sighed, knowing that it was going to be a long time until they got to come back. 'So just keep practicing on your own as best you can and well done, everyone. Great, _great_ work.' Everyone clapped and began to scramble out of the room. Emily watched Harry, his eyes were on Cho Chang. Emily never really did like Chang very much, she just always seemed so shy and close to herself. But, Harry was infatuated with her at the moment, and if he liked her, she would try her best to too. She also watched as the twins came up to him.  
'We've been thinking Harry,' George said.  
'We could always slip Umbridge some puking pastels into her tea-' Fred began.  
'Or Fever Fudge, they give you these massive puff filled balls-'George continued. Emily sighed and interrupted them.  
'Sorry Harry, shouldn't be keeping you.' she said, holding onto Fred's arm, but quickly letting go. 'And as for you two, can't you see he's a bit preoccupied?' she said obviously. Harry blushed a bit. 'We'll be going, good luck.' she hugged him and whispered, winking as she led the twins out of the room.

'So Emily, what're you doing for the Holidays?' George asked her.  
'Well, I _was _planning on staying here at the castle. Harry's been feeling really down in the dumps lately, and I wanted to help him feel better. But Dumbledore's sent me to headquarters instead.' she sighed.  
'You're going to the order as well? We're going to be staying there!' George said, motioning between him and his brother.  
'Well it looks like I'll be joining the two of you over the holiday.' she laughed. 'You need some help with that?' She asked George as they all continued down the corridor. He was carrying a few Skiving Snackboxes.  
'No no, I'm fine.' He said. 'Fred, I'll meet you in the common room, I should get these back before we're spotted with them. Can't risk anything else to be confiscated.' he said as he walked off.  
'Yeah, meet you there!' he shouted after his brother. Once he was out of sight, Fred took hold of Emily's hand, and they walked down the hall together hand in hand.

'What're you thinking Freddy?' she asked, noticing he's been quiet for quite some time. He let out a sigh.  
'Just thinking about how lucky I got to be spending two _amazing _weeks with the most beautiful woman in the world.' he smirked.  
'Ah, and who is this woman you speak of? Have I met her? Will I be jealous?' she cocked an eyebrow at him. He smiled and leaned down to kiss her. Emily wrapped her arms around his long, slender neck and sighed into him. It seems like forever since she last got to taste him. Fred must have known what she was thinking, as he slid his tongue into her mouth. Both their tongues battling for dominance, and he only won because she was being overwhelmed with the feelings he was giving her as he slid his hands down her body. She quickly pulled away knowing that if they continued, someone would definitely find them.  
'It seems like we never get to let go and relax. Like someone will spot us, then what?' Fred said.  
'I know. I hate having to sneak around.'  
'Not just the sneaking that's bothering me, I don't get to touch you like this when others are around.' he said as he started to kiss down her neck. She chuckled.  
'We'll have the holidays.' she said, trying to make him feel better.  
'Yeah, but we'll be surrounded by others. Not just others, but important others. Others who'll have a fit after finding out what we've been doing.' he said smirking. This was just like him, trying to get her to succumb to him and let go, at the most important of times as well. 'I can't wait until we leave this castle.' he said.  
'Why's that mister Weasley?' she asked.  
'Because we'll have the flat above the joke shop to be alone.' he smiled. Emily pulled away from him and smiled, looking into his eye.  
'You found a spot?' she asked. He nodded and laughed.  
'A few weeks ago actually.'  
'Why didn't you tell me?' she said, and then pushed her head against the wall she was pushed between previously after their heated snog. 'Ugh! I should've known this too! In the story, you already found a spot, why didn't I remember?' she asked herself, just a bit confused. Fred shrugged.  
'Things can be forgotten. And besides, it came as a surprise which was nice.' he smiled. 'C'mon, we better get back to the common room, people might wonder where we are.' He held a hand out for her as she straightened herself up and they continued back down the corridor.

* * *

Emily was sound asleep in her dorm room, when she heard the door being slammed wide open. She sat up straight in bed and noticed exactly who it was after rubbing her eyes.  
'Professor?' she said quietly. 'Professor Snape, what're you doing in here?' she asked. He rushed up to her and grabbed her wrists, pulling her out of the room.  
'You're being summoned by the headmaster.' he said.  
'Wait, why? What for?' she asked as they rushed down the steps and towards Dumbledore's office. Snape stopped for a moment.  
'You know, of course you know.' he said. 'Don't you?' he walked over to her and stared her in the eyes.  
'Y-yes...of course.' she said. He didn't say anything, she assumed he wanted proof. 'Something terrible had happened. Obviously.' she said, hoping she was right, she didn't know what was going on at all in fact, why didn't she know?'  
'Arthur Weasley had been attacked in the ministry, Potter had dreamt about it only moments ago.' he explained to her. Her eyes dropped. Of course that had happened, it was the only explanation. They headed up to his office and they stood there, after hearing Harry yell at Dumbledore for some reason. 'You summoned us, headmaster?' Snape said, jumping in to the silence.  
'Yes, Emily, is he alright, is he fine? Will Arthur be well?' Dumbledore spoke harshly as he came up to her and shook her by the arms.  
'Ow, sir, you're hurting me.' she said quietly.  
'Is he?' he asked louder.  
'You told me not to tell you what'll happen, no matter how bad the situation gets.' she said.  
'Forget that, will he be fine?' he asked. Emily looked at everyone i the room first, before nodding at him. He let her go and she took a deep breath. Something was terribly wrong with him. She could see it in his eyes just moments ago. 'Severus I'm afraid we can't wait until morning. Otherwise we will be vulnerable.' Dumbledore said.

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	40. Chapter 40

**Chapter 40:**

Christmas break began and Emily was in the kitchen, with the rest of the Weasley's eating supper. Misses Weasley was giving out presents. Ron got a furry vest, and the twins got matching scarves. She looked over at Fred as he tried it on and smiled, he looked adorable, she hasn't seen him this happy since, well, for a long time. Emily got a present too. She got another jumper, this one was red.  
"I hope you like it dear, I just thought since you've grown so much since I last made you one." Molly said.  
"Thank you so much, I love it." she smiled and hugged Molly. Then she ran over to Harry and gave him his gift. Emily looked over at him and watched as he opened it u and smiled. He caught Emily's eye, who was now looking past him to the doorway. Harry turned around and saw Sirius leaning on the door frame. She's proud of him. He seems so much happier now. She's glad he was doing better. She hasn't gotten a chance to talk to him in a few weeks. Then Mister Weasley piped up.  
"A Christmas toast! To Harry Potter, without whom, I would not be here." He said, rasing his glass. "To Harry."  
"To Harry!" Everyone else repeated.

After dinner, Emily managed to sneak her way up stairs, only to hear someone behind her.  
"Oh my goodness Sirius, you scared the living day lights out of me." she said, holding her heart. He laughed.  
"Sorry 'bout that." he said. "How you been?" he asked.  
"I've been great, you?" she asked.  
"Amazing." She looked at him, he was trying to hide something.  
"Really?" he nodded. "Sirius, what's wrong?" she asked.  
"Nothing's _wrong_ per say, it's just, this old house...it brings up so many memories I wish I could forget." he said, leaning against the banister.  
"I completely understand." she said, sitting on the stairs. "But don't worry about it, you'll get past the memories sometime soon and start to feel alive soon."  
"So how's school?" he asked, trying to change the topic. Emily chuckled a little bit.  
"School's school I guess. The only thing that's making the school year a little bit more interesting is the fact that Umbridge is there."  
"Ah yes, Harry told me about her. The Toad." he laughed.  
"Speaking of Harry, have you talked to him lately?" she asked.  
"No, why? Should I?"  
"I don't exactly know." she lied. "But lately he's just been seeming a bit off. Like something is bothering. I don't understand why though, but it seems like he thinks he has to do this entire thing alone. I'm worried about him. That's just what Voldemort wants..." she said, putting her hands on her chin. Sirius was quiet for a moment.  
"I'll need to have a word with him. A little heart to heart chat." he laughed. Emily smiled.  
"I'm just saying, make sure he's okay. If he's going to talk to anyone, he's going to want to talk to you." she said and got up. "Good night Sirius." she said.  
"Good night." he muttered from the bottom of the stairs.

Emily was sitting on her bed looking through the potion book Severus gave her, staring at that recipe. She still couldn't figure out why it didn't work. Maybe he was right, maybe Severus knew it wouldn't work and that's why he never told her about it. She had a million and one theories in her head, but couldn't settle on one, when the door flung open. She quickly jumped up.  
"There you are!" Fred said as he came storming into the room.  
"Whoa, what happened, what's going on?" she asked. Fred pushed her onto the bed and threw the book onto the ground. "Fred?" He got up and closed the door, locking it.  
"Do you remember what we did the last time we were in this room?" he asked, smirking. Emily smiled and raised an eyebrow.  
"I'm not sure, I think I'll need you to refresh my memory." she said. He came over to her and laid on top of her. He kissed her passionately on the mouth and Emily moved her hands so they were at the hem of his shirt. He pulled back and began to kiss down her neck. "I think it's coming back now..." she muttered, she could feel Fred smiling against her neck.  
"You seem worried about something." he said out of the blue.  
"Of course I'm worried about something, I'm always worried about something." she said, closing her eyes and throwing her head back. She took off his shirt and laced her hands into his hair as he kissed further down her neck. He switched sides and kissed the other side of her neck.  
"Anything I should be worried about?" he asked. She shook her head.  
"The only thing you should be worried about right now is this." she said. He smiled and continued to kiss her. He kissed all the way back up to her lips and said,  
"I've been wanting to do this to you for s long." he said into her ear.

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	41. Chapter 41

**Sorry for the long wait, but I hope it's worth it!**

* * *

**Chapter 41:**

Emily walked into the front doors of Hogwarts early Saturday morning. It was the day everyone was returning back to Hogwarts. She took one look at the great hall and was tackled by Angelina, dropping her bags.  
"It's good to see you too." She said, hugging her friend.  
"Oh I've missed you! That castle was so quiet this year." she said. Angelina decided to stay at Hogwarts over the winter break, and her parents had no problem with that.  
"So I reckon nothing happened then?" Emily asked as she pulled away from Angelina. Angelina helped her by picking up one of her bags and they made their way slowly up to the common room.  
"Yes, and that's the thing. _Nothing_ happened at all! It was completely boring. I did get a chance to go out and ride my broom a couple of times though. That was nice, cold too."  
"And the Toad, how was she?" Angelina let out an annoyed sighed.  
"As toady as ever! I think she added about twenty no rules to her wall. I lost count." she said as they climbed the stairs. "So enough about me, how was your vacation with Fred."  
"Ang I told you nothing's happening between us. It's over, and it's not starting back up any time soon."  
"So it _is_ going to start eventually?"  
"Would you relax about it?" Emily said as she walked up to the fat lady. "I don't understand why you're so interested in us anyways."  
"Oh please, it's never going to be over between the two of you. I see the way he looks at you when he thinks no one is watching. He looks like a drooling puppy." Emily laughed. They entered the room to find it extremely crowded and people were gathered all around the place.  
"Looks like the entire house is in here." Emily said as they made their way around everyone to the stairs.  
"Looks like it." Angelina laughed. They got up to the room and got Emily settled back in. After that they decided to head down to Hogsmeade for the rest of the day, seeing as they were allowed.

They traveled down through the melting snow towards Hogshead where they met up with Katie Bell. They sat in a booth and talked about their Winter breaks. Katie went home to see her family in London and had a huge family dinner. She made it sound like such a stereotypical Christmas. Big vibrant tree, lots of family, dozens of presents, matching sweaters and the whole nine yards. After a few hours of looking through Zonko's and Honeydukes, they were on their way back up to the castle, when they ran into Malfoy, Crabe and Goyle.  
"Oh you've got to be joking." Emily muttered.  
"Hey Ryan, how'd you enjoy your time serving the Weasley family over break? They give you enough things to do?" Draco snarled.  
"What do you want Draco?" Angelina asked.  
"Oh nothing, just trying to make conversation with an orphaned maid." he smirked.  
"Well keep walking, cuz there's no one like that around here you pompous twat." Katie shot back. with that we walked by them, and Katie knocked him on the shoulder.  
"Mental that kid is, to think he has the audacity to speak to you like that." Angelina murmured.  
"Why you little..." Draco began.

It all happened so fast.

Emily turned her head around in time to see Draco pull out his wand. She did the same and attempted to block Katie. He let out the spell and Emily wasn't fast enough, so she jumped in front of Katie, and it hit her instead. I fell to the ground screaming.  
"Oh my god! Emily!" Angelina kneeled down  
"Emily! Oh I'm so sorry if I knew he was going to do something like that I never would've opened my big mouth." Katie said, kneeling next to Angelina.  
"I-it's fine. I-I'm fine. I just need to..." That's all Emily said before falling unconscious.

It felt like she'd been asleep for hours. Emily slowly opened her eyes. She was more comfortable then she'd been in a long time. She sat up and let out a big yawn before rubbing her eyes.  
"Oh my god, I can't wait to get out of here and find Malfoy so I...can..." She stopped mid sentence. She thought she was in the infirmary; but she wasn't. "No." she said. "No no no no no!" She looked around the room and saw her room. Not her dormitory in Hogwarts, oh no, she saw her room when she was thirteen. She looked down in her lap and saw the book. _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. _She shot out of bed and headed for her mirror.  
"Oh my god I'm tiny again." she said, she was looking at her skin, she was thirteen _again_. She sat down on her bed and put her hands in her face. "This can't actually be happening can it?" She jumped when she heard a knock at her door. She slowly got up and opened it. "Jeremy?" she asked.  
"Yeah hurry up mom says if you sleep any longer you're going to be late and I'm not driving you." he said with his mouth full of toast. She closed her door and leaned against the back of it, slowly sliding down until she hit the floor. Then it hit her, why was she freaking out? She wanted this. She _wanted_ to go home. Why was she so upset? So she did what she was supposed to, she got ready for school.

After getting dressed and eating breakfast she got into her brothers car and they headed to school. The entire ride was silent and she was just staring up at him.  
"You know, I told you I _wasn't _going to drive you to school." he cut through the silence.  
"I know."  
"Why are you being so quiet?" he asked. She just shrugged her shoulders and looked down at her tiny little body. Damn, she looked strange. It was like she was living someone else's life.  
"I don't know, just nervous I guess." she said.  
"About your new school?"  
"About this new life." se murmured. They got there and he parked the car.  
"Okay you're on your own. Don't get lost." he said as she watched him walk over to his group of friends.  
"Don't get lost...don't get lost. All I have to do is go to school, not get lost, and make it through the first day until I can find out what's wrong with-"  
"Hi Em!"  
"AH!" she shouted as she saw her friend Sarah. She was walking up the front steps towards her. "Oh sorry, I was in my own world there for a second. What's up?" she asked.  
"Excited?"  
"Why wouldn't I be... it'd be crazy if I wasn't excited, right?" Emily laughed. They went into school together and headed to their first class, science. Which was extremely boring for her. Then she had English, Math and Drama. After the day was over, she met her brother at the car.  
"So how was it?" he asked, as he got in.  
"Fine. It was fine. Can we just go home now?" she said as she put on her seat belt. The day was extremely boring. No astronomy, no DADA, no charms or even potions for crying out loud! She forgot how to multiply! Which was crazy now that she thought about it, they should really add some classes to Hogwarts. But the worst part of it, the _real_ worst part; was that there was no Fred. She realized today that living in a world without him was physically impossible, she would die, she will die. He's like a junkie going though withdrawal without him near her, and she needed to get some more of him. There was no doubt about it.  
"Whoa is everything okay?" Jeremy asked.  
"Yeah, everything's fine. I'm just tired, I didn't realize how hard this was going to be." She pretended to laugh.  
"All right..." Jeremy said as they headed home.

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	42. Chapter 42

**Chapter 42:**

Emily just finished having dinner with her family. They were sitting at the table and her father was rubbing his stomach.

"Dear that was delicious. Best pot-roast you've ever made, without a doubt." he said.  
"Yeah real good mom." Jeremy agreed.  
"Emily? Are you okay dear? You haven't said anything all dinner." her mom asked.  
"Oh yeah I'm fine."  
"Did something happen at school?"  
"I said I'm fine!" She shouted, then everyone went quiet. "I'm sorry mom I didn't mean to ell I just- I'm exhausted and I'd just like to get some sleep is all." she said.  
"Well all right then, head on up to bed and I'll get your father to tuck you in." her mom said, clearing the table.  
"Mooom! I'm not a child anymore!" she complained as she waltzed up the stairs.

She got ready for bed and went over to her book case to grab the Order of the Phoenix. Her initial idea was to read the fifth book while she was falling asleep in order to get back to Hogwarts. But when she got to her bookshelf, the books were gone. Frightened, she ran down the stairs to where her parents were in the living room.  
"Where are they?" she said panicked.  
"Where's what honey?" Her father asked.  
"My books! My Harry Potter books!" she said.  
"Oh those."  
"Yes those, where are they?"  
"Aren't you getting a little old for those stories?" Her mother asked.  
"No I'm not! Look can I just have them back?" She asked nicely.  
"No I don't think that's a good idea." Her mother said as she got up.  
"Why isn't it a good idea?" Emily asked.  
"Well because you'd go back, and we can't have that can we?" Her father asked. Emily was as still as a stone.  
"What're you talking about?" she asked.  
"Oh honey, did you think all of this is _real_?" her mother asked. "It's a charm dear!" her mother said, getting annoyed.  
"I-I don't understand...so I'm _not_ home?" she asked.  
"This _isn't_ your home. It never was and never will be. It's a charm honey. And one you're not going to leave any time soon."  
"You wanted a family, so you got one." her father said. Emily was on the verge of crying at this point.  
"Where are my books!" she asked.  
"Somewhere where you'll never be able to find them." her mother said. "Now I suggest you go back upstairs and crawl into bed. Your father will be up there in a minute." her mother instructed. Emily let a tear fall when her back was turned away from her parents. She marched upstairs and slammed her door shut, catching her breath. She couldn't stay here. She _had_ to get back. Then the idea hit her. She ran towards her closet and quickly changed into her clothes. She threw on her jacket and went over to her window. She opened it and sat on the ledge looking down at the bushes beneath her window. All she had to do was get to the library and find the book, then maybe she'd have a chance to get back.

* * *

**_Back in Hogwarts..._**

Fred sat beside Emily's bed in the infirmary. She's been out cold for three days now and he skipped all of his classes to stay with her. He thought back to when he found out what happened to her...to that night.

_Fred was sitting in his room with his brother testing out some new products for the _store.  
_"George no way, there is no chance in hell I am putting that in my mouth!"  
"Come on Fred I've all ready put four in mine, it's only fair!" he said.  
"Okay okay fine..." And he did. He put the candy in his mouth and began to chew it. The door burst open.  
"Angelina!" George shouted, as he shot off his bed and towards the door. Angelina was catching her breath as he walked up to her. "What happened, calm down." he said soothing her shoulders. "What happened?" he asked.  
"It's Emily! We were walking back from Hogsmeade When Draco-"  
"Draco!" Fred shouted. They turned to look at him. His tongue was seven feet long, hanging out of his mouth. _

_George tossed him the candy that fixed it and they ran to the infirmary.  
"Ang what happened to her!" Fred rushed to her side and sat on the bed beside her.  
"Draco came up to us as we were walking back to the castle and started saying some stuff about Emily and her being an orphan. So we said some stuff and walked away. Then she must've felt something because when I turned around she was blocking Katie from an attack after Draco drew his wand." Angelina explained. "Then she fell to the ground and passed out." George and Angelina stood behind Fred as he looked at her face.  
"I should've been there. I could've stopped it from happening." he said.  
"No one knew it was going to happen." she said.  
"She did. Of course she would know." he said. George and Angelina looked at each other.  
"Do you want us to give you a moment?" George asked. Fred didn't answer, and he didn't need to. They left him any way. _

Fred took a deep breath as he held onto her hand.  
"Come on Em, wake up. Do it for me." he said. He looked at her emotionless face. "I can't go on without you. I need you." he took another breath. "I need you to be strong."

* * *

"Okay Em, just jump. It'll be fine. It's easy. Just close your eyes...and..." She jumped. And landed into the bushes. She got up and dusted off the leaves from her hair and clothes. She heard her mother call after her from her room. She made a run for it and headed in the direction of the local library. When she got there she opened the door and ran inside, taking a break when she found an empty section. "Okay focus Em, Rowling...Rowling...I need to find R." she said to herself. After wandering aimlessly around the library for a good ten minutes she found the section. "Oh thank Merlin! Oh I mean god, thank god." she laughed. "Philosopher's stone... Chamber of Secrets...Prisoner of Azkaban...Goblet of Fire..." she smiled, remembering the good times she's had so far. "Half-Blood Prince- WAIT!" She looked between the two books. "Oh you've got to be joking!" She complained. "I have to find it!" She went up to the front desk.  
"Good evening miss."  
"Evening." she said quickly. "I need to find a book."  
"Well isn't that why everyone is here? To seek out the words they desire?" She quirked an eyebrow. She was dealing with a lunatic, and she knew it too.  
"Yeah yeah of course. Listen, do you have any Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix books available?" she asked. The guy turned towards his computer.  
"Ahh, so it's the master J.K of Rowling you wish to indulge in I see. Fine choice! Excellent choice actually-"  
"Look I'm sorry. You seem really nice and stuff but can we get this moving this is life or death here man!" she shouted, and a bunch of people shushed her. "I'm sorry. It's just been a ling day and I've seemed to misplace my copy." He looked at his computer.  
"Well unfortunately the gods are against you on this day, alas we have none available."  
"None? Not even one?" she asked.  
"It appears so."  
"What am I going to do? I have to get home I just have to!" she said.  
"I would have no problem calling in a taxi for you miss." he said.  
"Oh shut up." She said as she leaned across the counter and pulled on the man's tie. |I think it's pretty clear why there isn't any available." she said. The man swallowed nervously. Then an idea hit her, a last bit of light. "Now would you so kindly escort the lady to your return bin." she said.

The man did as he was told, and directed her around the counter to the bin.  
"Thank you." She muttered as she dug in. She made it to the bottom and found it. Only one copy of the Order of the Phoenix. She held it close to her chest and let out a long breath she felt like she was holding in ever since she got back. "I'm coming home Fred." she whispered. Then she heard a ding go off. She peered behind the wall and saw the librarian talking to two people, her "parents."  
"Have you seen a girl by any chance? About thirteen years old?" her father asked. She quickly turned back around and held the book back to her chest. She looked down at it. She could try and read it now and risk getting caught. _Or_, she could make a run for it and find a safe quiet place to read it instead. She decided to make a run for it. She crawled on the floor behind the wall until she got to the end of the desk, where the door was. She quickly walked towards it and the alarm went off. She caught the attention of her parents and their eyes met before she ran out the door and into the streets. She could hear her parents running after her but she could stop. She ran into an alley and took a breath. She hid behind a dumpster as she heard her parents run past.  
"That was _way_ too close." she whispered.  
"You're telling me! Get outa' here! This dumpster's been claimed!" She turned around to see an old man laying on the floor with a newspaper on top of him.  
"Oh! I'm sorry is this spot taken?" she asked.  
"Depends, it could be." he said, eyeing her book. "There's a price." She looked down at her book.  
"Oh no. No way, I've gone through _way_ too much to get this and _no one_ is taking it away from me!" she said, hiding it behind her back.  
"Then find another dumpster!" he said.  
"But I can't, they'll find me!" she whispered.  
"Then hand it over missy." he went for the book but she tried to get up. Instead he grabbed hold of her legs and wrapped his arms around her. "Give it here!"  
"No!" she struggled to get up. "Get _off_ of me!" she hit him repeatedly on the back to get him off.  
"The book the book!" he kept shouting.  
"I know it's a book you idiot!" she said. She hit him in the eye and he instantly let go so he could rub it. She got up and caught her breath.  
"You rotten woman!" he shouted. she just watched him as she backed away from him and ran off.

She eventually found a park where she sat down on a bench. She placed the book on her lap and stroked the side of it.  
"All right. no more tricks, no more tests. I'm going _home_." she said. She opened the book and began reading...

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	43. Chapter 43

**Chapter 43:**

George walked into the infirmary where he saw his brother asleep on the chair beside Emily's bed. His hand was still intertwined with hers. He lightly sighed and walked up to his brother and lightly shook him awake.  
"Freddy," he began, "any luck?"  
"She hasn't woken up yet if that's what you mean." he said as he looked at her.  
"How long have you been here?"  
"All day, all night." he said.  
"Jeez Fred, why don't you head back to the common room and get some rest. I'll stay and look after her." he suggested. Fred yawned and rubbed his eyes.  
"I can't; I can't leave her Georgy." he said  
"Why not?"  
"Because I love her." he said. "I never stopped loving her and I don't plan on starting now." he turned to his brother, his face unreadable. "Oh shut it I know you knew."  
"When did this happen?" he asked.  
"You didn't know?" he asked.  
"I should've yeah. But you never told me." he grabbed a chair and took a seat beside his brother. "I knew you loved her, I just didn't know you two were still... you know..." They both looked at the sleeping Emily.  
"I just want her back George."  
"I know. Don't worry, she'll be up in no time." he put his hand on his brothers shoulder. Emily sprang up, gasping for air. "Hey what do y'know, I was right."  
"Em!" Fred stood up and sat down next to her. She was coughing sporadically.  
"Madame Pomfrey!" George called.  
"Are you okay?" Fred asked.  
"I-I was back," she swallowed, "Back home, w-with my family. Or at least I thought it was my family. It's all quite complicated really." she said. "I couldn't get back."  
"You did get back." he said as he pulled her into a hug. Madame Pomfrey came dashing into the room with some cough medicine. She told the twins to leave as Emily regained her strength over night.  
"Now get some rest Miss Ryan, you'll need it for classes tomorrow." she ordered. Emily did as she told and fell back to sleep.

* * *

After a night of sleep Emily was finally allowed to leave the infirmary. She was called to Dumbledore's office straight away though. She headed in the direction and climbed the steps. She knocked on the large wooden door and heard a faint "Come in" and slowly opened the door.  
"Ah, Emily." Dumbledore greeted. "How are you feeling? Better I assume?"  
"Yes very much sir." she said.  
"I did hear what happened, Mister Malfoy was sent to a whole different level of punishment for using that kind of magic on another student." he said.  
"What kind of magic sir?" she asked.  
"Extreme charms." he said.  
"Which makes a whole awful lot more sense now that I think about it." she said. Dumbledore paused for a moment before speaking.  
"You saw your family again didn't you?" he asked.  
"Yes, well sort of. I know now that they weren't ever my family." she said, looking at the floor. "That night, all those years ago, when I thought I was dropped into this world-" she paused before taking a breath. "I came out of a charm didn't I?" she asked.  
"Yes." She slowly nodded, understanding.  
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" she asked.  
"You would not have believed me my dear." she smiled, knowing he was right. "I hope you do not think I am being rude when I say this, but you have always wanted a family. You were an orphan who wanted a mother and father, and an older brother but was never able to get it." he said. "When you were old enough to learn spells, you tried to create your own, but you ended up creating a charming spell that made you think you were living another's life."  
"I did that?" she asked, he nodded.  
'This does not change very much." he said.  
"Sir this changes everything." she said. "What I don't understand is how Malfoy came to know this charm." she asked.  
"Unfortunately this charm has been exposed to the dark lord, and he has been able to teach his death eaters this. The only way Draco would have been able to learn such a thing is-"  
"Is through his father." she finished. she rubbed her hands against her face and started pacing the room. "Then how do I know what is going to happen?" she asked.  
"That I do not know my dear. But I am sure you will be able to find that puzzle piece when you are meant to." he said. She nodded. "Now go on, you have classes to attend don't you?" he asked. She smiled up to him and stood up.  
"Thank you, Albus." she said before leaving the room.

* * *

After lunch Emily was on her way to potions class when she heard her name being called from down the hall.  
"Emily!" she turned around. "Em!" It was Fred. She smiled.  
"Fred, you have no idea how happy I am to see you." she said as she hugged him.  
"I went to the infirmary this morn but they had all ready released you and I couldn't find you."  
"Dumbledore wanted to see me." she said.  
"Oh I see, well is everything okay?" he asked her. Emily looked around them and pulled him into a nearby broom cupboard. "What's going on?" he asked again.  
"So much Fred...so, so much."  
"Well then, I'm all ears." he smiled.  
"Well after Draco charmed me I was sent back to my family, or what I thought was my family and really wasn't even my family in the first place. Then I had to wrestle a hobo to get back here and-"  
"Okay slow down."  
"Sorry." She took a breath. "It's a long story. All I know is that I was charmed to think that I had a family, when I really didn't I've always been an orphan." she said. "I was stuck under that stupid spell and I couldn't get back Fred." she said, looking into his eyes. "The only thing I could think about was if I'd ever be able to see you again." He leaned down and captured her lips with his own in a long, deep, passionate kiss.  
"You're back now there's nothing wrong. It's all going to be okay." he said as she laid her head against his chest. "As long as I'm around nothing like that's ever going to happen again." She buried her face into his uniform and took in his smell. she missed his smell, his touch, every inch of him. They were quiet for a long time. They both knew they were going to be late for potions, but they didn't really care at that moment. He kept trying to cheer her up with stories about him and his brother for a good half hour. "So get this," he began. "While you were out cold, I might've let the pin drop on our whole secret." he said.  
"You what?" she asked, pulling her head back up and looking at him.  
"Whoa, calm down he's not going to tell anyone."  
"Really?"  
"Of course not. I told him not too. I trust George with my life, you of all people should know that." he laughed.  
"Yeah I know." she smiled. They decided to skip the rest of class anyway and just stay in the closet. They spent a good hour in each other's arms, They kissed and told each other stories(But mostly kissed).

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